There You Were
by James' Girl Lily
Summary: Story set in the Marauders era. It's another year of Hogwarts and the seventh year students are trouble by the rise of Voldemort; but something is happening inside the castle that's alomst as troubling. James is hearing mysterious evil giggles...
1. Giggles in the Night

There You Were

Disclaimer: I own nothing that came from the Harry Potter books by the brilliant J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 1: Giggles in the Night

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It was dark, that much was obvious; but the reason for the darkness was still unknown. Always unknown. Nothing ever occurred in this particular darkness; no scary monsters popping out of side corridors, no attacks. Nothing that made you scream, but at the same time everything made you scared.

And then, just when you thought you were safe, It came: the faint laugh in the distance. Not a deep chuckle you followed to find it's owner, nor a cheerful cackle that invited you to join in. This laugh resembled a child-like giggle, one that sent chills up your spine.

It was this exact giggle that featured in one teenager's dream every night for the past week. This student walked through the quite halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry searching for something; though what it was they could not say. Forever searching, and forever followed by the giggle.

James Potter jolted awake, the memory of his dream echoing in his mind. Sitting up, he reached over to find his glasses on the night stand, certain that he wouldn't be going back to sleep tonight. It was the same every night. Sleep, dream, wake at 5:30 in the morning and forget about trying to go back to sleep. James had learnt the hard way that sleep again would only bring on worst dreams.

These dreams were starting to worry him, but until something more substantial happened in them James was unsure what they meant or how to resolve them. He wasn't afraid of a _giggle_, or at least that was what he told himself when he woke in the early hours of the morning. What scared him was not knowing how to stop it, or what he searched for every night in the dark halls. But waiting for the dream to unfold seemed like the best option to him, if only he could manage to ride the dream out.

Getting bored waiting for the sun to come up; James wandered down to the kitchen. He thought the Potter house elves would be at work making breakfast until he remembered Fridays were their day off. Why Fridays he couldn't say, something about his mother thinking an odd day would be better than a weekend. Or maybe it was the day they picked for some reason. His sleep deprived self could not come up with a better answer so he decided to drop the thought.

Summer break was coming to a close, and with it came the start of the New Year at Hogwarts. For James and his friends, the _famous_ Marauders, this meant their final year of school, and they already had plans to make this year the most memorable of all. Pranks were being planned, Quidditch was to be played, and the hopes of snagging a pretty young lady or two were all goals of the near future. Although for some only one girl would do: Lily Evans. Lily had been refusing his offer of dating for years. But James was certain this year would be different.

Coming out of his thoughts to the sound of heavy footsteps in the hallway; James turned to see his best friend, Sirius Black, drag himself through the house. His destination was the always ready coffee pot. Over the summer, Sirius had perfected the art of walking around the house with his eyes closed. It was a handy talent in the early hours of the morning when opening your eyes was extremely undesirable. The problem with this 'magnificent art' as Sirius liked to call is, was being unable to determine if someone else was in the room. James planned to use this knowledge to his advantage. Knowing that even on working days the house elves avoided making coffee, James waited for Sirius to fill the pot before making his presence known.

"Morning Padfoot."

No-one would believe Sirius could jump that high, at least not this early in the day.

"Jesus Christ Prongs! Give a guy a little warning before you waltz into the room as quite as a bloody mouse!" Sirius spun around to face James, holding a hand over his heart in a dramatic show of surprise. "You'll give me a heart attack one of these days."

"Only if you don't give me one first." James replied grinning as he took a seat at the kitchen counter. "Besides, if you'd had your eyes open you would have seen I was already in the kitchen. No mouse waltzing happening here."

"Sure, I'm definitely going to believe that one." Sirius said rolling his eyes as he began to prepare his pot of coffee. "What are you even doing up? Did you have the Giggle-Dream again?"

James sighed. He'd told Sirius about the dream because they told each other everything. But like James, he had no idea what it meant or how to fix the terror James felt every morning. It was becoming a topic he didn't want to talk about.

"Yeah, I had it again. Not much different from the rest of them. Less walking before the giggling started." He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "If I could find out who the giggles belong to, or maybe just reach my destination maybe I could…could."

"I know mate." Sirius replied, understanding how frustrated James was with being left in the dark; in more ways than one. "Moony might know something to help, or maybe even dear Miss Lily can provide you with an answer. It's not her giggling is it?"

"I am not telling Evans that I'm having nightmares about giggles!" James defended immediately. "And no, she's not my giggle monster. It's more of a horror-child sound"

"I still think you should tell Lily. She might think you're an actual person if you fear something. Prongs, this could help you get her to date you." Sirius said with true excitement in his voice.

"I want her to date me because of _Me_; not because I have some silly little dream. I'm not flawless, and she should see that. God she should have noticed last year I wasn't exactly the bullying toerag of fifth year. I shouldn't have to keep presenting her with my faults so she can scrutinise me before turning me down."

The summer holidays had given James time to think over The Lily Situation. He was still madly in love with her, but he'd decided to change his tactics this year. No longer would he continuously bother Lily with endless amounts of dating questions. Nor would he suck up to her. His plan this year was to just be himself. So far he liked the plan; of course he was yet to put it into action since the school year had not started yet.

"I think that's what she wants though." Sirius stated bluntly. He wasn't very diplomatic before the coffee kicked in. "Look, we'll just wait and see what happens next week. You can wait a week, right?"

James sighed. He'd been waiting forever for Lily, he could wait a week.

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It was the day before school began and Lily Evans was making the most of it. She had already made her plans for the day, having written them down last night on a spare piece of parchment. Organisation: that was the key to Lily's success, or so her best friends Alexandra Wattleby and Dorcas Meadows liked to think. Lily liked to think it was dedication and determination; the organisation was a major factor of both.

Walking over to her desk, Lily read over her plans:

_Final, __unrushed__ family breakfast _

_Reading in the nearby park _

_Last minute packing/checking everything was packed for school_

_Go to bed early_

The last item on the list was more of a reminder than a demand. Lily had a history of waking up extremely early when she had something exciting planned for the coming day. Going to bed early ensured that she would gain plenty of sleep even if she was up at 4 a.m.

Bounding down the stairs for breakfast, Lily faced her first problem for the day: Her father had already left for work.

"Good morning darling." Mrs. Evans greeted enthusiastically. "How did my baby girl sleep?"

"Mum, why did dad leave already? "We arranged it last night. My last morning here was going to be a family thing. I even said Petunia could bring _Vernon_ if she wanted to!" Lily exclaimed, naming her sister's steady boyfriend.

"Oh sweetie, you know he would have stayed if he could. But it is getting pretty late in the morning, he couldn't stay around any longer." Her mother replied giving Lily a small smile. "But I made blueberry pancakes"

Internally Lily was still upset. She wouldn't have time to have a proper goodbye breakfast tomorrow because of the need to get to Kings Cross station bright and early. But she wouldn't let it show anymore.

'_Dad didn't miss the breakfast deliberately,' _She told herself calmly. '_And I'll see him tonight at dinner. I'll just adjust my plan for today and we'll have our final meal at dinner.' _

"Thanks for this mum, it looks wonderful."

Over breakfast Lily thought about the upcoming year. A few weeks ago she'd received her final Hogwarts letter outlining what was needed for the year. But this year something extra special arrived with it: a letter informing Lily that she was to be Head Girl this year. Her excitement could hardly be contained. Lily had been aiming for this position since she first became a Prefect in fifth year; and now she had fulfilled her goal.

This year was going to be different. Lily had decided to enjoy her final school year more than ever. This meant going to Hogsmead on every weekend there was a scheduled trip; not studying every free moment she had, despite the fact that N.E. were a major obstacle this year; and attempting to fight with James Potter less than usual. Though the last point may prove to be more difficult than the rest, Lily was preparing herself to try. There was no use fighting the entire year, it wasted too much energy and never got them anywhere; especially since James was appointed as Head Boy. The two of them were going to be working together more often than previous years.

The day went by quickly for Lily. She managed to accomplish everything on her to-do-list and all without trying too hard. As she drifted off to sleep that night her dreams were full of bright red trains, glittering night skies and endless blue skies, as well as sparks of magic floating in the air. It was these moments that made Lily most excited about returning to Hogwarts: the magic she would do there.

Lily walked through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 at Kings Cross station without any concern at all. No longer was it a scary experience wondering what lay behind the door to the magical express train.

This was going to be a very interesting year.

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**A/N: Well here we have the first chapter of my new story. I probably should have attempted to finish my other story but I didn't feel like continuing it at the moment. **

**As for 'There You Were'…I have no idea where I want this story to go, but I had an urge to write something and this is what I came up with. I'm hoping I'll think of something fabulous to write about. **

**Tell me what you think about the giggling-monster. **

**~James' Girl Lily.**


	2. Trains, Reunions and Girls

There You Were

Disclaimer: I own nothing that has already been presented to you in the fabulous Harry Potter books…always remember that.

Chapter 2: Trains, Reunions and Girls.

* * *

The Hogwarts Express stood stationary where it always had at the start of each school year. Lily took comfort in the fact that the nothing appeared to have changed. The excitement she felt walking across the nearly empty platform was much like that she'd felt upon first entering the magical portal.

"This year is going to be perfect!" Lily whispered to herself as she continued to let her gaze wander.

"Talking to yourself again Lily?" A familiar voice asked from behind her, causing Lily to jump slightly.

The voice belonged to a close friend of Lily's, Remus Lupin. Though one of the infamous Marauders; Lily had discovered years ago that Remus was not as obnoxious and self-centred as his best friends. He looked almost the same as he had the previous year, although the tired lines that framed his pale blue eyes and he seemed to have gained a bit of height.

Lily sighed.

"Only on days ending in 'y'." She replied waiting for him to catch up with her. "I see you've had a growth spurt. You're taller this year."

Remus looked quite pleased that someone had noticed his change of appearance. Although Lily wasn't the first to notice. James and Sirius had given him quite a show when he'd seen them the previous week; lots of fooling around and acting smaller than they were. Next to his best friends, Remus was still a lot shorter. At least he had a height advantage over Lily and Peter, the final Marauder.

"It's not much of a change." He mumbled looking down so as to hide his proud looking face. Lily just smiled. "So what are you doing here this early?"

"I – um…wanted to get a good carriage?" Lily stated, though her sentence sounded more like a question than a statement. They both knew the excitement of going back to Hogwarts was what dragged them to the station at such an early hour. "Because you know how hard it is to find a suitable seating arrangement when there are hundreds of students roaming around looking for their friends. This way I can find something _fabulous _that Dorcas and Alex can join me once they arrive."

"Ah, how is our dear friend Al?" Remus asked pushing his trolley closer to the train. The question was a silly one since the Lupins lived closer to the Wattlebys than Lily did; but she answered as best she could.

"Well the last I heard she was still in Greece and that was only a few days ago. I wouldn't be surprised if she missed the train and had to floo to Hogsmead again." She remembered the time in fourth and sixth year where Alexandra had raced into the Great Hall half-way through the sorting because her parents had lost track of the days and had forgotten to come home.

"Lucky duck." Remus muttered to himself.

By this time the two friends had made it onto the train with little trouble and were searching for a place to stop. Remus found his usual carriage first and hesitated before opening the door.

"Look," He began nervously. "There's no point in both of us sitting around waiting for people to turn up, why don't you come in here too and we'll keep each other company. At the very least think of how lonely I'll be waiting for the other Marauders to turn up. James and Sirius are probably still running around packing right now and who knows when Peter will turn up. Besides, we have quite a nice regular space in there."

Lily smiled at him. "I guess it would be pretty useless sitting alone. I've read over most of the first chapters of each textbook and I don't want to get too ahead of the class otherwise there will be nothing to do during each lesson."

Remus stared at her. He knew she was dedicated to her work, but he hadn't realised she prepared herself so much _before _school had even begun.

"Uh, I'm going to pretend you said, 'Sure, I'd love to join you. I hate staying in an empty compartment by myself and the silences scare me,' because your reason for staying was just odd."

Shaking his head, Remus entered the carriage with Lily following close behind.

* * *

"It's moving! I swear it's moving!"

"Sirius!" James growled through clenched teeth. "Of course it's moving. We're on a train that was supposed to leave at 11 o'clock. And look at that, its 11:03! Now can you keep walking so we can get to Moony and Wormtail?"

"Gees you're a bit touchy today." Replied a pouty Sirius as he crossed his arms over his chest. Luckily for him, Mrs. Potter had applied a Light as a Feather charm to their trunks like she did every year and James had lost the annual 'Who will carry the trunks' competition. Getting onto the train was a breeze.

"Look, the trunks might be light but they're bloody annoying. I just want to put them down." He said in a calmer voice. He'd spotted their carriage and was finally looking forward to enjoying the ride to Hogwarts. The only downside was the Prefect meeting he had to co-run with Lily, but at least every situation had its upside. Little did he know the girl in question was sitting just behind the door with their good friends Remus and Peter.

Sirius ran head and threw open the door. As he surveyed the room a slow smile appeared on his face.

"Hi there _Miss Lily,_" He drew out her name to inform the young man behind him of the company in their carriage. "And before my manners are thrown out the window: Hello to Miss Dorcas and to Mr. Moony and Wormtail."

"Welcome aboard Padfoot." Remus replied. "I'm guessing Prongs is out there somewhere too, He lost the competition?"

"He certainly did! There I was, racing through the house. I was at the top of the steps, no-one in sight-"

"Tell the story correctly Padfoot!" James yelled cutting Sirius off as he stepped into the carriage, finally able to release his hold on the trunks and rest his now aching arms.

"I am telling it correctly. There was _no-one_, no thing, not body of worthy existence anywhere near me. Now where was I? Oh right, no-one in sight-"

"I like this story already." Lily stated giggling at Sirius' exaggerated comments about James.

"Look Padfoot, we don't need to hear about the competition. We get it, you won and James lost." Remus interjected quickly before Sirius had a chance to yell at Lily for interrupting. He was certain Sirius wouldn't take it lightly.

"Go on Padfoot." Peter said the picture of an attentive listener, glued to Sirius' every word and waiting for the moments when the story would continue. "You were at the top of the stairs…"

"Well Peter, if you must know. There was no-one in sight, so I jumped onto the railing using my free 'cheat if you must' card, knowing full well that James wouldn't be able to catch up at this rate…"

The rest of the carriage tuned out as the train picked up speed. The tension within the room had built with the growing silence. Never before had the girls joined them in their carriage. James was beginning to wonder why they were even here, but had decided not to ask. It wasn't like he cared that Lily was sitting with them for the entire train ride; saved him searching for her later. At that moment Lily jumped up.

"I should…um, go set up for the Prefect meeting. It'll be starting soon and everything should be ready."

"Sit down Little Miss Organisation." Dorcas said forcefully from where she was seated. "Dumbledore wouldn't have given up an unorganised set of instructions, and it's not like today's meeting is anything important. You're just getting to know each other. Same as last year's Prefect meeting, only this time you're going to be running it."

Dorcas didn't like mornings; and even though it was past 11 her holiday sleeping patterns had not been adjusted yet. With the dislike of mornings came her tendency to become annoyed quite quickly. But it worked. Lily sat down immediately knowing her friend was essentially right. Though she would have preferred to go over what she wanted to say, Professor Dumbledore would have outlined everything necessary. There was nothing to worry about.

"Um…Evans?" James began slowly, afraid of setting Dorcas off. He too had been on her morning side before and it was not a pleasant sight. "What exactly do we do at these meetings?"

Lily stared. She'd forgotten that James hadn't been a Prefect before, so was unfamiliar with the meet-and-greet process that had been developed.

"It's a simple gathering Potter." She replied formally. "We go in, introduce ourselves, get the other students to introduce themselves, outline the Prefect's responsibilities for the year, and then leave. Nothing terribly hard."

"Right," James said nodding. "Got it."

The carriage was silent again, but unlike the last silence built on awkwardness and tension, this silence was purely shock. Lily and James had actually managed a civilised conversation.

When the time came for the Prefect meeting, Lily and James left calmly and quietly.

"Am I still asleep or something, because I almost thought they were friends for a moment or two?" Sirius said breaking the silence.

* * *

The prefect meeting went without any problems. No fighting between the Head Boy and Girl, no House rivalry pushed through; just a calm and casual introductory meeting. But when it was just the Head students left, James began to get worried.

"Ugh!" Lily screamed finally showing some of her trade-mark fiery heat. "I just wanted to kill him!"

James stood to the side shocked. He wasn't sure if Lily knew he was still there, and as far as he could remember he hadn't done anything during the meeting that would set Lily off like this. He'd been a perfect angel, helping when needed and letting Lily run the gathering so she could draw upon her previous experiences to run it smoothly. But just because he didn't think he'd been in the wrong didn't mean he'd openly turn her anger towards him.

"Did you not see him?" She asked turning to face James. "He didn't say a thing. No introduction, no input. God, it was like he wasn't there. Or maybe he was just ignoring me! This is just like him, going around acting as though I don't exist. I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Evans, you're going to have to give me more information here. I have no clue what you're talking about." Although James did have a slight inclination about whom Lily was raving on about, but he didn't want to make anything worse. He'd seen Snape walk into the Prefect carriage with that wicked smirk on his face and also knew he hadn't opened his mouth once the entire meeting.

"Your dear friend _Snivellus,_ that's who I'm talking about!" She roared. "Well good riddance. I don't need him in my life anymore. He made his choice 2 years ago and I waited for him to really mean his apology, but obviously he didn't value our friendship as much as I thought he did. Evil bastard."

Lily stormed out of the carriage in a huff. Making her way down the train she heard noises coming from inside one of the toilet cubicles which definitely didn't belong. Taking out her wand she swiftly opened the door to reveal Sirius and a Hufflepuff Fifth year in an indecent position.

"Get out." Lily said sternly. The girl didn't need to be told twice. She quickly grabbed her shirt off the floor and ran out the door. Lily followed slowly aiming towards their carriage.

"Thanks James." Sirius huffed. "I was having a heap of fun and your future wifey ruined it. You must have done something really horrible to get her that angry."

James didn't bother correcting him.

* * *

**A/N: And there you have it: Chapter 2. **

**Don't expect all the chapters to turn up this quickly though. I was just bored this afternoon and couldn't be bothered doing uni work. **

**So Lily and James are being civil towards each other, how long do you think that will last? And Snape's in the bad books. Interesting isn't it? **

**A big thanks to CookieMonsterxx3 and the lil witch for reviewing already, you made my morning a lot more enjoyable than it could have been. **

**~James' Girl Lily. **


	3. Surprise!

There You Were

Disclaimer: The usual, I own nothing found in the fabulous Harry Potter series.

Chapter 3: Surprise!

* * *

James woke to the sound of frantic movement. He rolled onto his stomach and buried his face in his pillow.

"Come on guys, up you get." Came a muffled voice from behind the curtains. It sounded rather like a frustrated Remus. "Get up James, and don't just ignore me. Breakfast begins in 5 minutes and we've actually got classes this morning."

Definitely Remus. He had to be a responsible Marauder. Skipping classes and sleeping in on weekdays just wasn't an option for him.

'_He could have waited a few more hours. It's not like the first day is all that important anyway.' _James thought to himself. Though normally a night person, he was beginning to regret going to sleep so late the previous day. James was always tired after the Welcome Feast. There was something about finally being back at school that sparked excitement within him. That, and a combination of fantastic food and the company of the Marauders, made the night all the more enjoyable.

"Don't make me throw water over you! Remember what happened the last time I did that Wormtail?" They were only too familiar with the last water incident in the boys' dormitory. No-one forgets the famous counter-attack thrown by Peter; the dormitory was flooded and everything was ruined. At least, that was how Sirius liked to tell the story.

"Uh du ne brooof." Sirius mumbled from behind another bed curtain.

"Yes Padfoot, you do need breakfast." Remus interpreted. "And don't try and convince me otherwise; I know you too well for that. Besides, it's the first day back at Hogwarts; the house elves have probably gone crazy making all sorts of breakfast foods. You know they haven't had the chance in a while."

Remus' speech was met with silence.

"Fine then," Remus said giving in. "I'll just plan the Back-to-Hogwarts Marauders Prank myself. Maybe I'll give the Slytherins a bath?"

"Pranks?" Sirius asked jumping out of bed. "Why didn't you say so earlier? You know, I'm feeling a little peckish; is breakfast on soon?"

* * *

"Morning Ladies." A voice announced from behind Dorcas and Lily, causing the latter to jump.

"Far out!" Lily cried, spinning around in her seat at the Gryffindor table to look accusingly at the girl who had crept up to them. "Alex! Where have you been?"

"I've been sitting in a dark corner waiting patiently for the right moment to sneak up on you Lily." The girl in question answered in a low voice as she sat down next to Dorcas and picked up a piece of toast. Adopting a brighter tone she added, "And it looks like I chose the right correctly. Mmm, normal food. I've been craving Hogwarts food for weeks! Travel food just isn't special after a month or two."

It was typical of Alexandra to move through multiple conversations in one breath without ever mentioning the one topic someone wanted to discuss. The students at Hogwarts often wondered whether she did so deliberately. Lily and Dorcas had had plenty of conversations stating their opinions on the subject and had decided she just liked talking too much to notice questions hadn't been answered. There was too much thinking involved to come up with a better reason for Alex's behaviour.

"Let me rephrase," Lily began, smiling at her friend. "Why weren't you on the train yesterday, you missed a fabulous welcome back Feast?"

"Lily only thought it was fabulous because Dumbledore kept mentioning her as Head Girl." Dorcas muttered in her usual grumpy morning tone.

"Oh that's right; you're Head Girl this year. Who's Head Boy?" Alex said turning on her gossip voice, showing once again how simple it was for her to switch from topic to topic within a conversation.

"Don't change the subject!" Lily and Dorcas stated their thoroughly rehearsed line when dealing with their friend.

"And the Head Boy is James." Dorcas threw in as an afterthought.

"What? You can't tell me something like that and expect me not to react!" The silence Alex received informed her of their opinions on the subject. "Fine, fine; I was going to tell you about it anyway. I was delayed getting to the train because I was at my…_boyfriend's_ place. And I know what you're going to say: "You have a boyfriend?" or "Since when?" but we're keeping it quiet for now, ok? Though I will give you some insight into his existence: He goes to Hogwarts and is in our year. I'll tell you more about it later, but for now I'm not saying anything else."

The girls were silent once more, taking in the whole situation slowly.

"I wasn't going to ask you predictable questions." Dorcas finally stated, breaking the silence as she piled more eggs onto her plate.

"I was." Lily said laughing at Doracs' attempt to cover up her desire to know more. "Congratulations Alex. I look forward to meeting him one day. As you boyfriend that is, I suspect I've already met him once or twice."

"Ah Lily, always the diplomat." Alex sighed, returning the smile. "Now, tell me more about James being Head Boy. How'd he manage that one?"

Their reply was cut off by the entrance of the Marauders. The boys came crashing into the Great Hall jumping off one another and laughing every time someone fell down.

"Speak of the Devil and the Devil shall appear." Lily muttered rolling her eyes at their childish behaviour.

"That's not very nice Lily." Dorcas scolded. "I'm sure there are people out their more devilish than James. They were actually being civil to each other yesterday."

Alex had time for a shocked "No way!" before the boys were upon them.

"AL!" Sirius screamed running over and sitting in front of the girls. "Look guys, Al's here."

"We can see that Padfoot." Peter grumbled taking a seat before putting his head on the table.

"Mr Grumpy over here forgot to turn his attitude switch to 'Act Excited' this morning. Silly thing." Sirius explained leaning his head against his hand. "So Al, how are you?"

Alex started laughing, "I don't know hoe you do it Sirius, but you always manage to make my day. I'm fine. Glad to be back at Hogwarts actually."

"You're just in time to see us plan the Welcome-back prank: Marauder style." Sirius grinned, momentarily losing concentration as a couple of Hufflepuff sixth years walked past.

"Mind on the job Padfoot." James whispered as he reached for the bacon sitting in front of Dorcas. He was met with a slap on the hand. Obviously he wasn't eating bacon today. "I don't know how he does it. One moment he's dead asleep and the next he's wide awake. I'd call it magic if I didn't know better."

"I'm not sure we should be discussing our plans with an official in hearing range." Peter said quietly as he raised his head to look at Lily.

"You heard him," Remus began smiling. "Off you go _James_."

"Oh, no; I didn't mean you Prongs. It's just that, well, Lily tends to stop us…" Peter justified, his voice slowly decreasing in volume as he anticipated the attack he'd get from Lily.

"We'll block her ears." Dorcas offered, covering Lily's ears with her hands.

"Hey, hey!" Lily said wiggling out of Dorcas' hold. "I'll just leave. No need to stop the highly anticipated Marauder prank planning because of me."

"Then why don't you stay?" James asked looking up at her.

There was a moment when their eyes met, green and hazel gazing at each other. But it was broken by Lily who appeared almost frightened before looking down. James was puzzled.

"I'll feel obligated to stop you if I listen in. The less I know the better." She stated quietly to the chair.

"I have to say I agree with Miss Lily." Sirius jumped in. "I don't want to be looking over my shoulder every five minutes expecting McGonagall to pop up. Ta-ta Lily darling."

He waved to her as she made her way out of the Great Hall, watched by a messy haired boy.

"Nice one Sirius." James stated hitting him over the head.

"So, about this prank you're setting up…?" Alex asked, pushing the conversation onto a safer topic than why James was so upset about Lily leaving. No-one needed an argument at this hour of the morning.

"Well," Remus began. "We're thinking of doing something with water this year. Something to represent summer and it coming to an end. We thought about making the Great Hall's enchanted sky actually rain on students, but then we don't particularly want to get wet ourselves. And we definitely want to be here when whatever we decide on happens."

"We'll save the rain for another day." James said, much to the pleasure of Sirius who had come up with the idea.

"Remus suggested giving the Slytherins a bath earlier. We could change their table into a giant bath and just throw them all in?" Peter suggested.

"Too one sided. We've got to make it look like we're not targeting them, at least not for the first prank." James stated rejecting Peter's idea.

"I quite like targeting them." Sirius muttered as he looked over his timetable for the day. "Damn, charms first. Think we can spend the lesson working on prank idea?"

"Probably." Remus thought aloud. "If we get to class early enough we can get back row seats. It'll be harder for Flitwick to see us that way."

"What are we waiting for?" Sirius asked jumping up and running out of the Great Hall.

"I guess we're going to class then." Dorcas declared as they watched Sirius dodge a few students on his way to the door.

"It certainly looks that way." Remus replied smiling.

The Marauders spent the rest of the day, including most classes, devising a prank plan. They were careful not to let Lily see their progress, despite how often they saw her during the day. Much to the surprise of the other students; Doracs, Alex and Lily spent most of the day hanging out with the Marauders. The two enemy groups of Gryffindor seemed to be in each other's good books for now. Thought the future of this friendship was still unknown.

* * *

"I've just remembered why racing off in the beginning of breakfast in not a good option." Lily stated as she sat down in the Gryffindor common room that evening. "Did anyone manage to get a copy of the Daily Prophet today?"

"Here Lily," Remus replied handing over the paper in front of him. "You should know by now that there's always a copy lying around here somewhere."

"Thanks." Lily said taking the paper and flipping it to the front page. Her expression changed from on of interest to on of concern almost instantly. "Oh god."

"What?" Several voices asked at one.

"Has anyone read this yet?" She asked her voice uneven. The multiple shaking heads answered her question. "He's been at it again, You-Know-How. Sending those stupid Death Eaters out to terrorise muggles and create fear." She paused. "There was a death this time. It's getting worse."

"A death? Anyone we know?" Dorcas asked immediately.

"No. It says they weren't of magical background. Just some unlucky person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Lily answered as she reread the article.

James jumped up and left the common room quickly. His departure was followed by all but Sirius.

"He'll be going to owl his father. He's an auror attempting to stop _Lord Voldemort_ and his band of stupid followers. Like an evil Robin Hood he is. When will they learn that dark magic doesn't win?"

"I don't know. But I hope they work it out before more muggles die." Lily whispered before sending a silent prayer for her family's safety to anyone that would listen.

* * *

**A/N: There you have it: the next instalment. I was going to attempt to work out the Marauders' big prank, but I'm super tired and have this growing headache, so that one will have to wait until next chapter (which I'll be trying to get out over the weekend…I'm bound to have some time not devoted to uni work) **

**Thanks to those who have reviewed. It means a lot that you take the time to do so. They also make me feel extremely special. **

**Until next time…**

**~James' Girl Lily**


	4. All Wet

There You Were

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter (simplest disclaimer ever)

Chapter 4: All Wet

* * *

"Stupid Marauders!" Dorcas screeched as the girls walked down towards the Great Hall the following morning.

Lily looked around and noticed every student at Hogwarts had a similar bubble hanging over their heads. The girls had woken up with these bubbles floating above them. Tentative as always, Lily hadn't touched hers; but Dorcas had not been as careful. She now stood, soaking wet and apparently unable to dry herself. Of course everyone knew this was the Marauders' opening prank. But the girls weren't aware they were going to be targeted too.

"I could kill them." Dorcas growled through gritted teeth. "Not only am I wet, but now I'm cold. Being covered in water that doesn't dry isn't a good plan when walking through draft filled corridors!"

A squeal sounded in the distance, signifying yet another student's bubble popping and coating them in water.

Lily and Alex had taken to walking extremely slowly so as not to bump their floating companions.

"You just told me last night that the Marauders were considering something to do with water. How could you not expect to be wet?" Lily asked coming to a quick stop as some First Year students ran past, flicking each other with left over water.

"I didn't think they'd come up with anything this quickly!" Dorcas replied bumping into a few students as she turned around to face her friends. The cries behind her informed them that she'd knocked more water bubbles out of place.

"This is fun." Alex said excitedly as she watched wet students enter the Great Hall. "I wonder how they did it. I mean, it's a ridiculous prank! Students might get sick, and imagine the damage that could come from slipping on all the extra water, especially if you can't clean it up with a simple drying spell."

Lily laughed. "Good save Alex. And though it's not my favourite activity on the Hogwarts Agenda, this prank is a fairly harmless one. So students are wet for most of the day, it's better than being covered in slime or having your appearance changed for a week. Ugh, do you remember fifth year and those stupid skirts they charmed us all to wear? Dreadful."

"Lily Evans!" Dorcas yelled walking up close to the girl in question. "You're supposed to be on my side! I have a strong urge to pop your bubble missy."

"Dorcas calm down. I'm not about to go up to the boys and congratulate them on the successful opening prank; I still don't believe in rewarded them for misbehaviour. But you can't deny that this is a better prank than most. Now take a few deep breaths, I'm on your side. You're only upset because you got wet already."

They had reached they Great Hall and, upon entering, noticed the amount of students who where now bubble-less. You could pick out the students who'd had their bubbles popped accidently from their grumpy faces; students who'd purposely burst their bubble to join in the water fun; and the few students who were trying extremely hard to keep their bubbles above their heads.

Spotting the Marauders, the girls made their way over to them; each for different reasons. Dorcas wished the yell at them a bit, especially since none of the boys had a bubble over their heads or were completely wet. Alex wanted to know the success behind the prank. While Lily was carefully following her friends so as not to burst her bubble.

"I have potions today." Dorcas was saying as Lily finally caught up. "Do you know what that means? It means a cold, dark dungeon and a wet me! Not a particularly good match. You couldn't have waited until the weekend when people had nothing to do?"

"Well, if we'd waited until the weekend it wouldn't really be a Welcome-Back Prank. We'd have been back for days by then, which is hardly the example we want to set to the younger generations: that you can wait until the weekend to get good pranks in. Erase that from you memory Lily, we're not teaching the younglings anything about Pranking." Sirius said covering his previous comments in a casual way. He was not concerned about what Lily did or did not hear about his maraudering ways.

"Consider it erased; though a, 'Don't wear colours that run', would have been a nice warning last night. Obviously you couldn't not prank us too, you can't show favourites in times like this, but a few choice words would have been appreciated." Lily replied taking a seat next to Remus and pouring herself a glass of juice.

"What makes you think you're above being pranked Evans?" James asked leaning towards her from across the table.

"_I_ don't think I am. But the girls hear were under the impression that you were including them in your scheming party, and were therefore exempt from the prank itself." She stated looking over at the still angry Dorcas who'd picked up a muffin and was slowly ripping it apart.

"Hey, we would have formally included you girlies if you'd asked. We've talked about pranks in front of you before and you've never cared that you weren't classified as part of the "exempt" crowd." Sirius shrugged surveying the Great Hall.

The amount of bubbles popped now outnumbered the amount still floating. Students were chasing each other with pins in an attempt to pop the remaining bubbles.

"Speaking of the Prank," Alex began smiling coyly. "How'd you do it?"

"Well," Remus jumped in expertly, nearly always the brains behind the execution of the Marauders' pranks. "It's a reverse Bubble-Charm. Just as fragile as a normal bubble, as I'm sure some of the student body has already found out."

Dorcas huffed.

"But it's on a time limit, and of course, the anti-drying charm always adds to its appeal." James added with a small smirk on his face.

"But why the anti-drying? You get enough fun out of watching people get flooded with icy cold water." Alex asked with a confused expression.

"That would be Sirius' idea. Apparently he wanted to be able to tell who had been hit and who hadn't. And as a rule we take all possible suggestions and use them." James filled in, tilting his head in Sirius' direction.

Dorcas took this comment as her cue to hit Sirius over the head. "You idiot. Those without bubble would be enough information to tell you if someone was without their bubble."

"We tried to tell him that, but I think he had ulterior motives this time." Remus said sheepishly also looking in Sirius' direction.

"Like what?" Alex asked, once again confused.

Lily looked over a Sirius and watched where he was watching: the wet Hufflepuff sixth year girl. "Oh you've got to be kidding me!" She mumbled rolling her eyes. "I think I'm going to leave now, before the other guys in the room catch on." She carefully got up and began to walk away.

"Wait! Lily, why'd he do it?" Alex asked turning around to face her.

"Just don't get wet Alex. And if you do, go change your shirt." Lily replied. As she left the group heard her muttering about '_guys and their stupid hormone driven agendas.'_

"Hold up Evans." James said running to catch up to her.

"If you're here to burst my bubble keep walking. I always carry a jacket with me so there's no way you're seeing anything unwanted because of a wet shirt!" Lily snapped as James began to keep pace with her.

"I wasn't going to burst your bubble. I just wanted to tell you I got a reply from my dad. About the death yesterday." James said softly. He knew how scared Lily became when Voldemort's Death Eaters attacked muggles.

"Oh." Lily stated quickly.

James waited a few moments for Lily to say something else. When he figured she wasn't going to add anything he continued. "Um, the Daily Prophet got it wrong. When they said the person who died wasn't of magical background they were right, but they did have a magical connection. The guy's name was Matthew Hoggins. And his sister is a witch, a muggleborn."

"They killed a muggleborn's family member?" Lily whispered, shock racing through her body.

James turned Lily to face him. "Don't panic Lily. Dad said they're doing everything they can to stop it. And this doesn't mean anything."

"Why are you telling me this, are you getting some kick out of telling a muggleborn witch the evil monster people are potentially targeting muggleborn families as a way to prevent magic from leaving pureblood society?" Lily asked, her tone displaying her ability to mask the shock and despair she felt.

"No, no! I'm not trying to scare you and I'm definitely not getting a _kick_ out of telling you any of this. God, do you think I'm that heartless? I'm telling you because of the terror you feel about the Voldemort situation. I'm not just going to sit back and watch you torment yourself by creating images of your parent's deaths!" James justified as he watched the anger creep into Lily's eyes.

"Thank you, but I don't need your pity." She stated curtly before turning around and continuing on her way.

"Wasn't pity," James whispered to the empty space in front of him. "Just concern."

* * *

"I really don't mind all that much." Alex said yet again as the girls made their way into the Gryffindor common. "That potions lesson was boring and hot; all those cauldrons running at once. I practically begged Sirius to burst my bubble."

Lily was now the only one in their group to still have her bubble, though she was longer in the mood to care about what happened to it. Ever since her conversation with James after breakfast Lily had been in a horrible mood. What made it worse was knowing that he was probably right. He hadn't told her to make her upset; he'd told her because for some reason James considered them friends now. She was having a hard time figuring out why he would bother to do that. She'd been horrible to him over the years; rejecting him, yelling at him and on some occasions hitting him too. And yet, he still wanted to be friends? Boys confused Lily.

"I could have popped your bubble for you! You got the one person who'd enjoy it most to pop your stupid bubble." Dorcas complained sitting down on one of the chairs in the corner of the common room.

"Well at least someone enjoyed it." Alex shot back. "What do you think Lily, should I have let Dorcas pop my bubble?"

"Enough with the stupid bubbles. They're ridiculous and annoying and have been the only thing we've discussed all day. I've had more people talk to me today with offers to pop my bubble than I've ever had talk to me before in my life. And this _stupid_ prank has continued long enough. '_It's on a time limit'_ well that's nice, who really ever wants to have a short amount of restlessness during the school day? Not me, I just _love _getting nothing done in the first week of school." As Lily finished she realised the entire common room had caught the tail end of her rant. "What are you all looking at? God, you're all soaked through and we've still got no idea when the charm wears off."

"In about an hour." A toneless voice said from somewhere in the crowd. "And just so you know, there's no prize for being the only one left with their bubble."

The students parted to let James through.

"I'm sure there are others out there with their bubbles still in tact." Lily snapped at James.

"Actually, that was another part of the prank." He said pulling out a piece of parchment. "Recording all the students who still have their bubbles; you're the only one left."

"What does it matter if I still have my bubble anyway? Where's the harm in being safe and protecting myself from being continuously wet?" Lily threw back finally finding a release for the pent up anger she'd carried around all day.

"I didn't say there was anything wrong with it." James replied holding has hands up in defence.

"No, but you're implying it. Like I can't enjoy you _perfect_ prank or something." Lily yelled taking a step towards him.

"I was only stating that not everything you do in life is done to be rewarded. There's no party at the end of the night to say 'Yay, Lily Evans won the bubble race.' Not everything is worth being celebrated." James shot back calmly, closing the distance between them slightly.

"Ugh, you keep doing stuff in order to help me or better educate me. I don't need your help and I certainly don't want others telling me how _life_ is going to turn out." Lily growled through clenched teeth. "You want me to join your 'fun'? Fine."

She stormed up to James, stopping a few inches short of touching him. Pulling out her wand Lily raised it above her head and proceeded to pierce the floating bubble above her head.

"You win." She whispered icily before turning around and heading up to her dormitory trailing water as she went.

* * *

James was running late, he knew that much; but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember what it was he was late for.

'_I'll just run down to the Great Hall, catch up with the guys and work out where I'm going from there.'_ He thought to himself, hoping out of bed.

As he approached the dark door of the dormitory he remembered he'd forgotten his book bag. Heading back, James noticed how dark it was. Then the scenery changed. He was no longer in the boys' dormitory, but in a Hogwarts passageway.

"Not again." His dream-self whispered.

James was aware that he was dreaming, which was a change for the usual 'Follow-and-don't-interfere' dreams he was used to having.

His dream-self was obviously supposed to go one way, as he could faintly hear his familiar giggle sound in the distance sending shivers up his spine. But with a little effort, James managed to push himself in the opposite direction, hoping that this would lead him to the source of his nightmares.

Walking; that was all he seemed to be doing. Walking down an endless, unfamiliar corridor. Nothing to hear except the sound of his echoing footsteps. Nothing to see each the immediate surroundings of the stone walls.

'_No Paintings,' _James though searching the walls. '_Funny, I thought every Hogwarts wall was covered in paintings.'_

And then he heard it: The Giggle. Only this time it didn't echo.

"Shh, don't make any noise." A male voice, obviously not his own, whispered in the distance.

The giggling continued.

"If they ever suspected anything, we'd never-"

"Don't!" A female voice cut him off. Though soft and musical sounding, the voice was obviously not comforting; though it was slightly familiar.

James' heart began to race.

"Everything is going to be fine." She whispered before giggling once again.

James jumped. He was awake, lying on his bed just the way he had been when he went to sleep. The room was stuffy and Peter was snoring extremely loudly. He looked at the clock: 4 a.m. Grabbing one of his textbooks, James made his way downstairs into the common room. At least he'd find fresh air there.

* * *

**A/N: So you guys are extremely lucky. 2 updates in under 24 hours. And there's a possibility you'll get another chapter over the weekend (I'll definitely be taking uni breaks.) **

**So what did you think of the Marauders' Prank? **

**We finally see Lily angry at James, and you get yet another look at the Giggle-Monster. She had a voice! **

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. Your comments mean a lot to me. **

**~James' Girl Lily**


	5. Apologies and Talks

There You Were

Disclaimer: Nothing from the Harry Potter novels you find familiar is owned by me.

Chapter 5: Apologies and talks

* * *

James was not aware of anyone coming downstairs until the last moment when a loud "Holy-!" was hear before and even louder _thump_ signified the entrance of someone into the Common Room.

Jumping up off one of the Gryffindor lounges, James was greeted by the sight of Lily lying on the floor. She was gazing at the ceiling with a resigned look on her face.

"And apparently it is _not_ going to be a good day." She sighed softly to herself.

"You alright Evans?" James asked standing over Lily, blocking her view of the tower roof.

"Thanks Potter, I'll be fine." Lily replied in a civil tone as she began to get up. She was thoroughly surprised when James held out his hand to help her stand, but she took it anyway. "Thanks."

"It's what I'm here for." He shrugged with a small smile as he made his way back to the lounge.

James was only slightly annoyed with Lily's arrival; but that was only because the lounge was no-longer as warm as it had been before Lily's fall.

"What are you doing up so early?" He asked casually. He felt slightly awkward being along with Lily, despite wishing for her company for so many years. James had never imagined awkward silences would form between the two of them.

"I'm normally up at this time; it's not that early." Lily replied slowly as her gaze drifted to the floor by her feet. James wasn't the only one feeling awkward.

"6:30 is extremely early on a Marauder Clock." James said attempting to lighten the mood.

Lily smiled. "Then it really should be me asking you the 'Why are you up' question."

"Bad dreams." James said returning the smile.

"You didn't think of going back to bed or casting a sleeping charm?" Lily asked getting more comfortable in the chair across from James.

"There's no point. I've tried before; the dreams just keep coming back." He answered watching as Lily swept her hair out from behind her back so that she was no longer sitting against it. "It's kind of a reoccurring dream."

"Oh." Lily said unsure what else to reply with.

Since neither of them had ever been close friends Lily didn't want to pry into his personally dreams and, even though James was dying to ask Lily's opinion on the dream, he couldn't make himself tell her about it.

The silence returned.

"James," Lily started looking at the floor once more. "I, um. I wanted to apologise; for yesterday. I didn't mean to yell at you, well actually I did, but I shouldn't have yelled at you. You didn't deserve it. I was angry at myself and needed to let out that anger. And since you're usually the person my anger is directed at I let myself be controlled by it. It's not fair to you, and I'm sorry."

James was shocked. Never in all the times they'd fought had Lily said she was sorry. He couldn't even remember if he ever said sorry. The two of them were equally as stubborn as each other; neither liked admitting they were wrong.

'_She must feel really bad about yesterday.'_ James said to himself. '_She actually_ apologised_. I wonder what that means.'_

While James tried to come up with reasons as to why Lily was apologising, the girl in question sat waiting for his response. Her pulse was beginning to race, though she had no idea why she was so concerned about James Potter's opinion.

James looked up, a puzzled expression on his face. "You're sorry?" He asked, running his hand through his hair.

Lily glared at him. Taking a deep she tried again. "I shouldn't have yelled at you the way I did. I'm sorry."

The apology sounded forced this time, as though she no longer meant it. But James knew she wouldn't have said it if she didn't want to admit she was wrong.

"Apology accepted." He said looking straight into her eyes. James saw the relief wash over Lily's face as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Lily sighed relaxing in her chair once more.

The regular morning sounds were beginning to creep down the stairs to the two students sitting in the common room.

"Question; I know we've been fighting for years now, but I was wondering why we still manage to fight? I've been trying pretty damn hard to be less arse-like; but nothing seems to stop the fighting." James asked resting his elbow against his knees in order to lean towards Lily.

"Because we're so different?" Lily suggested shrugging. James's face showed he didn't like that answer. Lily sighed. "I don't know. Not really. I think it's partly because I don't want to open up to anyone anymore. I might talk to a lot of people here, but I don't let people know me. I once let a three people know me, I mean really _know_ me. But only two of them have kept my trust."

"Dorcas and Alex." James supplied. He understood the need for trust; and it definitely explained why Lily would be less open to him. He hadn't exactly done much over the years to earn her trust. "And the third was…"

"Snape." She replied. "And he lost my respect and trust a couple of years ago. I don't want to give myself over to someone and have them change on me without any notice. Severus was always a good friend, we'd been through so much together; and then he just changed. It didn't make any sense, or I didn't want it to make sense. I guess that's why I like fighting with you; well not like fighting, but keep fighting. You don't back down and I hardly ever back down. And I expect we'll always fight to a degree. I doubt we'll ever think the exact same way in our lifetime. Anger is a horrible emotion, it comes and goes and doesn't always end with a positive result. But at least it's not going to disappear over night; it'll still be there in some form when I wake up in the morning, even if just because it's raining. Using my anger on you all the time means I keep something stable in my life. Unchanging anger."

James was stunned. Never in his life had he ever imagined Lily would be this honest with him.

"Let the record show that I'm not the biggest fan of all our fighting; but you're right with the stability thing. It's nice to have something that stays the same in your life. But do you think we could tone down the arguments a bit, they get in the way of Quidditch practice?" James asked giving Lily his best smile.

"I'll try." She said returning the smile.

"Excellent. Well I better head upstairs; got to get ready for the day." James said hopping up off the lounge. "See you at breakfast Evans."

"Bye Potter." Lily replied waving him off.

* * *

**A/N: So it took me a while to get this next chapter up. I'd planned to write something longer, but I'm kind of stressing about uni work at the moment so I couldn't come up with anything else. **

**I won't be able to update until next Friday. I've got way too many assessments due this week. So apologising in advance. On the plus side I'll be on holidays for 10 days starting at the end of next week so I should be able to get a couple of chapters out then. **

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

**~James' Girl Lily**


	6. The Healing Powers of Fresh Air

There You Were

Chapter 6: The Healing Powers of Fresh Air.

* * *

A routine was established within Hogwarts. Classes went by in a flash, though the Seventh years found their work demanded more attention than it had before. Lily kept to her promise, she tried to limit the amount of fights she had with James and began trust him a little more. The Marauders had received a few detentions for various pranks, but they had been finding it difficult to juggle everyone's schedules. James had multiple duties to attend to now that he was Head Boy; while Quidditch, homework, and snogging adventures had made prank planning almost impossible.

James was sick of waiting for time to free up for pranking. He'd decided that the boys could go about creating mischief while he had Quidditch practice. It was a shame that Quidditch practice was being held on a Saturday morning, but there was nothing James could do about it; he hadn't been made Gryffindor's Quidditch Captain. But James wasn't disappointed; he was quite happy to hand the role over to someone else and be left with one less thing to worry about this year.

Since his friends weren't awake yet, James had decided to go for an early morning fly before practice began. Flying always calmed him and it also gave him a chance to think of nothing but the wind rushing past his face and any complicated moves he thought to perform.

Halfway through doing a few reverse loops, James spotted Sirius standing by the north goal posts. He quickly pulled out of the turn and flew down to meet him.

"Oh, hey James." Sirius nodded as James landed next to him. His tone was flat and he was holding a small piece of parchment. It appeared like he was concentrating on something particularly hard; but from what James could tell, Sirius wasn't looking at or doing anything that involved too much thinking.

'_It must have something to do with whatever is in that note.'_ James told himself as he began to worry about his best friend.

James stood there watching Sirius for what seemed like forever. He noticed a few more Gryffindor Quidditch players marching down to the Quidditch pitch but he didn't move to join them; they'd reach him soon enough.

"Sirius mate," James started hesitantly. "Are you alright?"

"Huh?" Sirius asked snapping out of the trance he seemed to be in. "Okay? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

James wasn't convinced. "Look, if you need to talk I'll skip practice. It's not like I don't know how to fly, catch a quaffle or throw it through a hoop."

"Nah, don't worry about me." Sirius replied instantly. "I'm just going to sit over there and think some things through."

"Go grab a broom." James suggested as he started walking towards the growing group of Gryffindors. "Flying helps. It always helps."

"I just might do that. Thanks Prongs." Sirius replied heading towards the school's broom cabinet. He'd left his own broom in the dormitory and had no desire to go retrieve it.

As James reached the Gryffindors he saw Sirius take off and fly towards the Lake. Turning to the group in front of him, He noticed that there were a lot more present than was necessary for a Quidditch team. '_Oh, crap. Try-outs. This is going to take longer than I thought.'_ With an internal sigh, James turned to their captain, a Sixth year student who was another Chaser on the team and settled in for a long morning of throwing quaffles at unskilled students.

* * *

'_It's just a letter. A Stupid, annoying, ridiculously short, bloody evil letter. But that doesn't mean it's important.'_ Sirius reasoned with himself as he did another circuit of the great lake. It was his fourth circuit. He knew he should stop with the flying; his hands were going numb from holding the broom too tightly and he was beginning to get dizzy from going in the same direction for almost an hour, but he couldn't make himself head towards the ground.

James had been right about the fresh air, it had helped clear his mind; but only to the point where he could finally think about the letter itself. The surprising letter that had been delivered about an hour and 15 minutes ago by a familiar grey owl: the Black family owl.

The presence of his parents' owl was a mystery to Sirius and he had been tempted to take the letter, rip it into little pieces and use the parts as fuel for the common room fire. But upon seeing his brother Regulus's handwriting, Sirius had decided to read the letter instead. No-one from his family had tried to make any sort of connection to Sirius since he'd run away the previous year. At least not a friendly connection; there had been a few snide comments and deadly stares sent his way, but since they weren't anything new Sirius had taken no notice of them. The fact that Regulus had tried to reach out to him had meant something to Sirius. That is, until he read the letter.

"Stupid Regulus; _Father's sick and he wants both his sons with him in his time of need._ Yeah, sure he does. Just like he wanted me around when I told him I was in Gryffindor, or that I was best friends with a Lupin and Pettigrew. Sure, James was fine, but _half-bloods_; definitely not acceptable. I'm certain he really desires my presence in his _time of need._'

Though there was no-one to talk to, Sirius found that speaking as though someone was listening helped him process his thoughts. He looked over at the Quidditch pitch once again as he made another turn around the lake. The familiar sight of students dropping quaffles and being hit by bludgers was not helping him clam down.

"Catch the bloody Quaffle you dipsticks!" He yelled over to them. A young girl jumped, barely catching herself before she fell off her broom. The quaffle was dropped again. "You're useless!"

Though he was too far away for his words to actually reach those on the pitch, he felt that his words made a difference; like he was actually confronting a problem and having an influence in its resolution.

"Bloody hopeless that lot is." Sirius muttered to himself as the Quidditch pitch moved out of his line of sight.

_You cannot leave you family; we're always going to be around. And that fact extends both ways. _

"Ugh! Get out of my head!" Sirius screamed to his brother's words as they trailed across his mind again. "I didn't leave my family; I left my imitation family and moved in with the real ones! And guess what, I actually like them in my life. If my real dad was ill I'd be out of here in a heartbeat; but my 'father' can go shove himself."

Sirius was beginning to close in on himself. His circle around the lake had shortened, and he was now travelling around the centre of the water, moving faster and losing sight of his surroundings.

_We know you moved off the correct path, but it is not too late to get back on track._

"Those who think there's only one path in life are idiots." Sirius snapped at the air. "Here that _brother_, You're an Idiot!"

_It is alright to admit you were wrong. We're willing to welcome you back. Your family wants you to come home. Come be with Father, join your family. _

"I wasn't wrong!" Sirius growled through his clenched jaw. His eyes narrowed as he picked up more speed; spinning faster and faster.

_Don't forget who you are, who you could be. _

"I'm not going – Arg!"

The pace had become too much. Sirius was thrown off his broom at an outrageous speed and was falling straight into Great Lake. The not so graceful landing was painful, but was successful in clearing Sirius's mind of his immediate problems. Fresh air has its moments, but frigid water is a more instantaneous remedy to a troubled mind.

* * *

The loud from the lake caught James's attention as he attempted to help a third year student hold the quaffle correctly. Twisting to look behind him, he saw a soaking wet Sirius breach the surface of the lake.

"Padfoot!" James yelled turning his broom and racing for his best friend.

He watched Sirius determine his position in the lake, twisting in the water until he faced the school. James reached him just he began to swim towards the shore.

"Padfoot! Are you alright? That was one bloody huge fall you had there." James asked, his voice harbouring mixed emotions of concern and amusement.

"I've discovered something important about myself today." Sirius said, coughing on the water he'd swallowed upon entering the lake.

"Was it to hold onto the broom while flying?" James asked, amusement winning his emotional battle.

"While that would be a useful lesson, that wasn't my discovery." Sirius shot back, indicating to James that jokes were more than welcome in this conversation. "No Prongs my boy, the lesson taught to me today was don't fly over a lake; especially not if you've got some deep thinking to do."

James chuckled. "You obviously had some heavy thoughts up there."

"Heavy, evil; either way they definitely tipped the scales a bit. You were right about the fresh air being good, but I don't think it help much. My buddy, the lake, was the real help." Sirius replied patting the surface of the water before he reached the shore and made his way out of the lake. "That's one way to forget about evil letters: let the water wash them away."

The puzzled look on James's face made Sirius laugh.

"Come on Prongs; you had to have seen the piece of parchment I was _clutching_ before."

"Yeah, I saw it. But I hadn't realised it was an 'evil' letter." James replied taking a seat next to Sirius on the grass by the lake. When Sirius shook himself trying to get rid of the water left on his body, James moved over a bit so he too wouldn't be wet.

Sirius sighed. "Got a letter from Regulus."

"Oh, wow. I didn't think you two were talking to each other?" James said switching from his 'fun voice' to 'understanding best friend voice.'

"We weren't. But apparently Mr. Black is sick and he wanted his _son_ to come sit with him. Bloody bastard." Sirius shook his head slowly, gazing at the now still lake before looking over at James.

"Bastard is right. How can they expect you to just drop what you're doing for them, especially for them, after all they've done to you?" James's anger sparked at the thought of Sirius being back in their clutches.

"Apparently they thought I'd made a mistake, picked the wrong path, and were willing for me to return to the right side of life. I feel tainted. I've got their bastard bloody running through my veins." Holding up his hands, Sirius glared at them.

"Don't worry so much Padfoot, you were switched at birth. Nothing of theirs is in you, absolutely nothing." James said, placing a hand on Sirius's shoulder.

"Thanks mate; makes me feel like an actual person now." Sirius's reply held the brotherly emotion they'd shared for years now. "I'm definitely not going to see him; there's no way I'm ever going back to that house again."

"Can't say I disagree with you there. And you know if you need to talk about how evil your family is I'm here for you, right? You don't have to go jumping in the lake every time they annoy you." James stated in the same brother-like tone.

"I'll take you up on that offer next time." Sirius smiled pushing himself off the ground and waiting for James to join him.

"You think there'll be a next time?" James asked as they walked back towards the castle.

"You know when you get that feeling that something about a situation isn't final, like there's more to it than what you know? Well I'm getting that feeling right now." Sirius's answer wasn't comforting. But being aware that his best friend, his brother, was concerned and willing help him through his problems made him feel like they could pull through.

"Let's just hope 'next time' doesn't come for a while." James said as they made it to the front doors.

* * *

**A/N: So I had this urge to write about Sirius this time. I hope you all enjoyed it. **

**I'll try and get another chapter up within the next week, but I've been having major creative blanks recently so I'm not making an promises yet. **

**Hope everyone's Easter was fun and full of chocolate. **

**~James' Girl Lily.**


	7. Confrontations

There You Were

A/N: I realise I promised to try and upload a chapter a week, but it turns out lazy old me left her assessment tasks until the last minute and now can't write up as many chapters as she wanted to. So the future chapters will be slightly delayed. Sorry. But I will be continuing the story, so just hold in there. Enjoy.

Chapter 7: Confrontations

* * *

The weather was beginning to change. Winter was approaching Hogwarts, and the students were starting to take necessary precautions to stay warm and healthy. No longer were students seen wandering the grounds in the late afternoon, it was much more appealing sitting in front of a warm fire in the common room; not to mention the large piles of homework that had been building up over the weeks meant time for wandering disappeared. Although there were a few select students who chose to brave the growing cold.

It just so happened that Lily Evans was one of those people. Constantly aware of the need to be on top of her school work, Lily had spent the entire windy Sunday in the Library. Though she had to turn her friends away for the day, she felt pleased that her weekend homework was completed by 5p.m. which meant the entire evening was left open for relaxing.

While heading back to the Gryffindor common room, Lily felt a slight tingling at the back of her neck. She had a strange feeling she was being watched, or worse, followed. But try as she might she couldn't hear anyone walking behind her.

'_There's nothing there._' Lily told herself, unconsciously quickening her pace; but still the feeling didn't go away.

Due to the darkened sky, the halls were lit up by a few small candles, the dim light coming from them casting eerie shadows against the wall. Hogwarts castle was not built for night excursions, at least not while you were under the impression you were being followed.

'_Stop being paranoid. You're walking the same route you always do, and it's not even that late_.' Scolding herself, Lily tried to slow down. She didn't dare look over her should, afraid of what she might see. '_As long as you get to the common room soon you'll be ok_.' Her words weren't as reassuring as she thought they would be, but at least while she talked to herself Lily could imagine there was someone else with her in the hall that wasn't stalking her every move.

Rounding a corner, she finally heard something behind her. A footstep. Faint enough to be just another student walking back to their own common room, or just wandering the halls; it wasn't late and students were permitted to be out and about. But with Lily already on alert, to her, the footsteps sounded like they were heading directly for her.

She ran.

If she wasn't convinced there was someone following her before, she was definitely convinced now. With each step she took towards the end of the corridor, two steps were heard behind her. They were running after her and obviously were more athletic than she was because they were catching up. But still Lily refused to stop. It was in this moment that Lily wished she'd thought to bring her wand with her to the library. It didn't seem necessary that morning when she'd only be writing a couple of essays. Never in her life did she think she'd need to defend herself within the halls of Hogwarts, or at least not recently; not when she was on friendly terms with the Marauders.

"Lily, would you just stop already!" A voice yelled from behind her.

Lily came to an abrupt halt. Turning around slowly she came face-to-face with Severus Snape.

"What were you doing running off like that? I know you heard me behind you." Severus said breathing deeply.

"What were you doing following me!?" She screeched in return. "A quick 'Hey Lils, wait up' wouldn't have killed you would it? God, you had me scared I was being followed by some psycho killer. But never mind, it was just you!"

Severus looked shocked. "That's a little harsh Lily. You make it sound like I'm an evil wretch. I'm your friend."

"No, you're my ex-friend. I was hurt in 5th year, but your tiny little apology didn't make up for it. And then you ignore me throughout the summer holidays and don't talk to me for a year. You were my_ best friend_, my first real magical friend; and you threw it all away." Lily snapped. Her eyes had formed the familiar glare people like the Marauders had grown to know so well. But never before had she had the strength to turn this glare on Snape.

"What do you mean I threw it all away? I slipped up_ once!_ But suddenly I'm the bad guy, and now you're hanging out with_ Them_? I thought you of all people would know better than to hang out with those losers. They spent to better part of the last _six years_ pranking me, and fighting with you. How does that turn into friendship?" It was obvious he didn't agree with Lily's choice of friends, and definitely was not a fan of having her anger directed at him. "I didn't give you some little apology. I meant what I said. And I just want us to be friends again. God, you don't know how miserable the last year has been. You make life better, can't you see that?"

"What do you want me to say, that I've missed you terribly and I can't believe I let a silly little comment rule my life? I can't do that. I did miss you, and though I didn't want to hear your pitiful attempts at saying sorry at the time, I was _upset_! But I gave you plenty of opportunities to come back, and you didn't take them. I trusted you with everything and I was left with nothing. And yet, through it all _They _stuck by me, whether I wanted it or not." By this time Lily was struggling to compose herself. She didn't want to cry over Snape. He'd been out of her life for a year and now was not the time to get upset over it all. She hated him for making her bring up old emotions, but he'd had his chance to fix it all and he missed it. A year long gap, with no communication or effort to reconcile, was too long a time to wait before fixing them problem.

Snape's anger rushed at him. He grabbed Lily by the shoulders and shook her. "I'm not an evil person!" He yelled into her face, shaking her once again.

"Severus let go!" Lily said shakily as he pressed his fingers into her shoulders.

"I didn't want to hurt you. I could _never_ hurt you!" He continued as though she hadn't spoken. He was looking into her eyes with such intensity, Lily's fear peaked again.

A noise sounded in the distance.

* * *

"Has anyone seen Lily?" Alex asked as she came downstairs from the girl's dormitory. The blank looks on the faces in front of her answered her question. "That's so weird. She said she'd be back by 6 o'clock. I was going to paint her toenails: Blood Red." She said holding up a bottle of dark nail polish.

"I'm sure she just got carried away with whatever she was reading." Peter said not looking up from his transfiguration homework. "Isn't that the sort of thing that happens to her?"

Sirius snorted. "Peter has a point Alex; you never know when Miss Lily will return from a trip to the Library."

"Maybe she got eaten by a book?" Peter wondered aloud.

"Don't be silly Wormtail. If there was some sort of man-eating library book I think Lily would be able to defend herself." Remus shot back, smiling at his friend's imagination.

"Ah, so it's the woman-eating library book that we've got to be weary about?" Dorcas asked, also smiling at the direction the evening conversation had taken. Life was never dull with the Marauders around.

"Well that would be all right and dandy if she'd remembered to take her wand with her! What happens if there really was a man – or woman – eating library book? Then she'd be doomed." Alex said sternly. Though it was plainly obvious that the group was fooling around, Alex had a tendency to worry when it came to her friends.

In any other circumstance Alex would have been the only one worrying; but this involved Lily, so James had begun worrying too.

"Perhaps we should check?" He asked the group, directing his question to his fellow Marauders. "Like, _check _check."

"I'll go get the Map!" Sirius yelled jumping up from his seat.

"Subtlety was never his strong point." Remus muttered as Sirius returned quickly carrying a worn out piece of parchment.

"_I solemnly swear I am up to no good."_

"Hm…?" Sirius said, peering over the piece of parchment intently while James looked over his shoulder.

"What the hell is that?" Dorcas asked, surprise written all over her face.

"Well, um, you see—" Peter began.

"Found her!" Sirius yelled. "I win! She's not far from here, just 'round the corner really and she's…_No Way?"_

"What?" Four voices said at once.

"She's with Snape." James whispered. He paused for a moment before grabbing his wand off the table and running out the common room portrait hole.

"I don't understand how you did that?" Dorcas shook her head. "You looked at a piece of parchment, and then knew where Lily was? So confusing."

* * *

Severus looked down at Lily and saw the terror in her eyes, terror brought on by him. He couldn't believe what he was doing; holding onto Lily like he was holding onto her friendship. She'd come through eventually, she had to, they were best friends; more than friends, he hoped. But right now he had to release her.

"I'm not an evil person." He whispered before running in the opposite direction.

The shock that was confined to Lily's face travelled through her body causing her knees to collapse. It was at that moment that a racing James came round the corner.

"Lily!" He sprinted to her side, ignoring the books and bag spread out around her on the floor. "Are you alright?"

"I'm ok," She stumbled out the words. "I'm ok."

"Let's get you somewhere warm." James suggested, pulling Lily gently to her feet before gathering her possessions.

Together they made their way back to the common room. In the shadows, Severus Snape watched his least favourite person in the world take his girl away from him.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Had to add the rest of the Marauders and the girlies into it this time. And our first encounter with Snape…ooo. Hope you enjoyed it. **

**~James' Girl Lily.**


	8. Shoes, Weddings and Classes

There You Were

Chapter 8: Shoes, Weddings and Classes.

* * *

Lily tripped up the stairs. If she hadn't already tripped three times this morning it would have been a surprise; but as it was stumble number four, she threw out her hands once again and caught herself before slamming her face into the step.

"Honestly Lily, you really have to start watching where you're walking. You're not even that distracted; unless you're still thinking about how disastrous lunch was, in which case I can't really blame you." Dorcas grinned as she remembered the dancing bread rolls that twirled across all four of the student tables in the Great Hall. The Marauders had been at it again and they'd decided on a light and fluffy prank for the day. In Dorcas's opinion, Wednesdays were dull and tiring, being the middle of the week, but this prank had made up for it. Of course, when the rolls did simultaneous kicks food went flying across the room, often hitting students; but it was all in good fun.

"It's not because I'm distracted. Ok, well the first one was, but not the last three. My shoes keep gaining weight." Lily replied sighing. "And I know that sounds ridiculous. One moment they're normal shoes and the next it's like they're made of lead!"

"Maybe your shoes should go on a diet?" Dorcas suggested as she helped Lily off the floor again. "Just try lifting your feat higher next time, ok?"

Lily nodded as they continued up the stairs. The girls were headed to their next class: History of Magic. Alex had dropped the class at the end of 5th year, after stating that she'd been in the magical community all her life and had never found a need to know when the first medieval wizard wars were or how the defeat of the goblins in "whichever-century-it-was," as she put it, led to their dependence on the wizarding community in order for employment. So for the next 2 hours Dorcas and Lily were a two-some.

They rounded the corner and started up the last flight of stairs when Lily tripped once again.

"That's it!" She screeched. "I give up."

Sitting on the stair, Lily began taking off her shoes.

"What are you doing?" Dorcas stared as, finished with one shoe, Lily began on the other.

"Getting rid of the evil shoes." Lily said through clenched teeth.

"You can't take your shoes off!" Dorcas stated matter-of-factly.

"Why not? They're being evil. And it's either wear the evil shoes and keep tripping up the stairs, or take them off and make it to class on time." Lily replied, defending her actions.

"But your feet will get cold." Dorcas said, concern leaking into her voice.

"I'd prefer the cold feet to falling on my face." She shrugged.

"Are you discussing your wedding already Lils?" Sirius asked walking up behind them. It seemed that Lily's constant tripping had allowed the Marauders to catch up to the two Gryffindor girls.

"I'm certain James would prefer the falling on the face." Remus supplied stopping next to Sirius who was giving him a puzzled look.

"Well that's a relief." Lily said sarcastically.

"We're not discussing her wedding." Dorcas sighed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Even if you were discussing Lily's wedding, I don't want to be thrown into the mix." James stated calmly.

"You're not serious are you?" Sirius was outraged. "Why in Merlin's name would James be happy with Lily falling flat on her pretty little face in the middle of _Their Wedding_!?"

"Even I know that one Padfoot." Peter laughed leaning up against the wall. "Cold feet or falling over. No wedding or Wedding." He made a show of weighing up the options.

"We're not discussing her wedding!" Dorcas screamed becoming frustrated with all the wedding conversations. "Lily, just put your shoes back on."

"Why wouldn't you want to be in the wedding James?" Peter asked

"Yeah, what's wrong with being involved in my wedding?" Lily asked joining in the fun.

"You know, I'm a little concerned about that one myself," Sirius started. "If you're not going to be involved James, who the hell is Lily going to marry?"

James sighed. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"Hey! Who said anything about me marrying James?" Lily huffed placing her hands on her hips. "I just wanted to know why he wasn't going to have an opinion on the flowers and colours."

"Hang on a second," Remus said in a serious tone, breaking up the joke. "Why aren't you wearing shoes Lily?"

It was Lily's turn to sigh. She'd been trying to forget about the evil shoes. Looking down she saw that they were still by her feet.

"I took them off. They're being evil." She answered.

"They're not being evil." Dorcas stated firmly. "You're just being unconsciously lazy today and won't lift your foot high enough to get up the stairs."

"I'm not being lazy! They're made of lead!" Lily yelled, her normal reactions finally surfacing. "I'd like to see you try to walk with lead weights on your feet."

Peter crouched down next to Lily's shoes. Picking one up, he shrugged. "They feel fine to me."

"See Lily," Dorcas beamed. "Now put your shoes back on. Your feet are going to freeze in these halls and I'm not letting you walk along the cold floor in nothing but your socks."

"They're only fine now because they're not lead all the time. It's a sporadic thing." Lily provided. She looked up into five disbelieving faces. "I'm not crazy! They've been doing it all morning."

"I believe you." James stated.

"Thank you." Lily let out a breath, finally glad to have someone on her side.

"But I also agree with Dorcas, you can't go walking the hall without shoes." James closed the gap between the two of them; putting one arm behind Lily's back before sweeping the other under her knees and lifting her off the floor. "Shall we head off to History of Magic?"

"Sure." Lily whispered looking into James's face. She was shocked, and at the same time quite happy to no longer be walking. The thought of walking jolted her out of her trance. Looking over James's should she yelled, "Oh! Someone grab my shoes!"

"I've got them." Remus said bending down to pick them up. "Um, guys, I think Lily was right. These aren't exactly a normal shoe weight." He threw one at Sirius who barely caught it because of the unexpected weight.

Lily turned and poked her tongue out at Dorcas.

"Alright, alright. We'll work out the mystery of the heavy shoes later; can we just get to class?" She said in response to Lily's act of immaturity.

"Onward to History!" Sirius bellowed, racing down the corridor with Peter in his wake.

"Let's make a note to discuss your shoes over dinner." James said to Lily, who was still happily cradled in his arms.

"It's a date." Lily said rolling her eyes.

* * *

"And then…when the goblins took their stand…against the Austrian wizards…" Professor Binns droned on once again, never looking up and never pausing in his lecture on the Austrian goblin riots of 1327. He hadn't even looked up when the Marauders, Lily and Dorcas wandered into class late causing a scene as James carried Lily to an empty desk while Remus and Sirius each carried one of her shoes.

"Is He still going on about goblins?" Sirius asked as he scribbled something onto the parchment in front of him.

"Yes." Remus replied twirling his wand on the table.

"Aren't you taking notes?" Lily whispered looking over at the boys.

"Nah, we never take notes in Binns's class. Way too dull to concentrate." James answered smiling at Lily.

"It's not _that_ dull." Lily muttered to herself.

Dorcas gave her a pat of the back. "Not all of us enjoy history as much as you do Lily. We can't all be freaks without shoes."

The group silently laughed as Lily pushed her feet out from under the desk and wiggled her toes, before she went back to concentrating on the lesson.

"What class have we got next?" Dorcas whispered to Lily.

"Potions." Lily replied. Dorcas groaned. "What's wrong with Potions?"

"Well you might like the class, but the rest of us aren't in Slughorn's good books like you are." Dorcas answered.

"Screwing up Snape's potion is always fun though." Sirius stated looking up from his desk. "Remember a couple of weeks ago, with the Strengthening Solution?"

"What did you do?" Lily asked using her Head Girl voice.

"Nothing he couldn't fix within the hour." Remus replied innocently. "We just switched a few of his instructions."

"Oh that one was good. He almost couldn't lift his quill, not much strength in that one." Said Peter, laughing at the memory. "He got us back in Herbology anyway. I was scrubbing that puss off for days." Peter shuddered.

"Um, that was me actually." Sirius admitted.

"What?" Peter screeched a little too loudly.

Professor Binns cleared his throat.

"Well, there was that hot Hufflepuff walking past the greenhouse, and I _may_ have _accidentally_ lent against the puss plant." Sirius whispered, sinking lower and lower in his seat.

"But you blamed Snape. You said he was an Ugly Git who had it in for us." Peter complained.

"Well he is." Sirius shrugged looking at his desk once more. "It's not like I lied about that part."

Lily tensed and tried to focus on the lesson still being taught.

"Are you ok Lils?" Dorcas whispered to her, concerned about how Lily would handle all the talk about Snape.

"I'm fine." Lily said, smiling back. Shrugging, she continued. "I have to get used to it. Severus is no longer part of my life. The Marauders are."

The class came to a close without too many extra distractions. James offered to carry Lily to potions, but she respectfully declined; deciding that she'd rather walk the cold halls than feel like an invalid, even if she had enjoyed not having to walk.

Lily kept an eye on the Marauders throughout the potions lesson; stopping them before they did anything too terrible to Snape. Thankfully James caught on that she was uncomfortable with their little pranks and helped direct the attention of his fellow Marauders into their own potion; which happened to be a Babbling Beverage. James and Sirius were trying to coax Peter to drink their potion. When they finally succeeded all thoughts of terrorising Snape went out the window. Peter was babbling for hours.

* * *

At dinner that night, the group sat down to discuss Lily's shoes. After filling in the details for Alex, who had questioned Lily's bare feet upon her arrival to potions that afternoon, they trying to figure out why the shoes were changed weight so frequently.

"Someone must have charmed it, or cursed it." Lily said instantly. "The question is why?"

"Who would want to charm your feet?" Alex asked. "I mean, it's not like it harmed you really. It made you slightly late for class and annoyed at not being able to walk up a few stairs. If they were really meaning to hurt you, wouldn't they curse you directly?"

"Alex is right. This is probably just a little prank some loser thought would be funny." Dorcas said nodding her head in agreement.

"Unless it was a warning." James stated softly.

"What do you mean Prongs?" Sirius asked cautiously.

"I don't want to sound like some crazy person with far-fetch theories on everything; but what if someone was trying to show how easy it is to get to Lily. Maybe it wasn't directed at Lily herself. However, she's the one that was cursed and what's one thing she doesn't have in common with the rest of us?" He didn't wait for an answer. "She's a muggleborn. Think about that one."

* * *

**A/N: So I told myself I probably wouldn't have time to write anything until after uni went on holidays over the winter; but it turns out when I've got no pressing assessments and am having an off-day writing about my favourite bunch of fictional characters is definitely uplifting.**

**Hope you all enjoyed it. Reviews are most welcome and definitely make me feel loved.**

**~James' Girl Lily.**


	9. Overheard at Hogwarts

There You Were:

Chapter 9: Overheard at Hogwarts.

* * *

"You said she wouldn't find out."

"She _didn't_ find out!"

He was dreaming, again. Those secret voices, they were around the corner: one female, one male. The dream had begun here. No walking through the halls, no following the giggles; just darkness and a bench, one James happened to be sitting on. He couldn't seem to move. Somehow he was being stopped from going any further. No matter how hard he tried, James couldn't get himself to get off the bench.

He sighed. There was nothing he could do about it now, nothing but sit there and listen to what they had to say. The woman began again.

"I told you it was a test. She's unimportant anyway; it wouldn't have mattered if we were discovered. What's one mudblood for the good of the cause?" She giggled.

"I care nothing for the girl. I care that we could be discovered." The man replied sternly.

_'He's obviously unimpressed with whatever scheme they've got going on.'_ James thought to himself, straining to hear more of their conversation. The couple had lowered their voices as though might be overheard in the empty corridor.

Then Her voice came through, seductive and loud. "I thought we wanted to be discovered." James could hear the smile in the way she spoke. He shivered. There was something about this woman that made every muscle in James's body seize.

"Not like this!" He yelled back at her. "I don't want us to be discovered by some petty mudblood like Evans!"

'_Evans?'_

James sat up in bed covered in sweat.

What puzzled him was that this dream was not nearly as frightening as his other similar dreams. This one hadn't had the long corridors, and it was definitely missing the soft echoing giggles. But the conversation, it sounded so real; like nothing James could have imagined, almost like he was actually overhearing a conversation between Giggle Girl and the Worried Man. But he had to be dreaming, right? It was just a reaction to the day's events: Lily and the cursed shoes. He was projecting the drama of the day into his dreams. Or at least, that's what he was trying to convince himself when his curtains were pulled back to reveal a worried Remus.

"Ok, I might be going slightly insane; but I just had the weirdest dream and it involved Lily." Remus's voice shook. "And then I heard you wake up. You know you were talking in your sleep. You said "Evans", which normally wouldn't bother me, because lets face it you've said "Evans" in your sleep so many times it's hardly a surprise anymore. But after having this dream? I don't know Prongs; it kind of freaked me out."

Sitting up, James pressed his palms against his eyes. "It freaked me out too. What happened in your dream?"

"We were hovering above the lake…don't ask, and it was a full moon; so you can imagine I was fairly surprised to still be human." Remus began. He sighed thinking of his problem. "As we sat there, quietly watching the lake and forest below us; Lily came running out of the forest. She wasn't wearing shoes, it was something I noticed instantly and kept thinking to myself: 'Her feet must be hurting like hell, running across the grounds with no shoes on.' And then they came after her."

"Who came after her?" James asked, concerned covering his entire face.

"I don't know who they were. It was two cloaked figures. But she was terrified. And then I heard this creepy giggle." He shrugged. "That's it. I'm starting to think I stole your dream. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to finally understand your giggle-problem; but I think I preferred you having it not me."

"Well thanks heaps." James mumbled rolling his eyes. "It looks like you and I both dreamt about the same people."

"So you were above the lake too?" Remus asked, taking a seat on James's bed.

"No, mine was still in the halls. And I'm almost positive those two cloaked figures were the same two people who appear in my dreams." James stated firmly. He leant under his bed and pulled out a piece of parchment, some ink and a quill.

"Wait, two people? You've actually dreamt of people?" Remus was confused. As far as he knew James was only hearing giggles. "And what's with the parchment?"

"Oh right, I forgot to tell you guys. I had another dream the first week back at school. But this time I managed to follow the giggle down a different path to where the Giggle Girl and her little friend were waiting. I've yet to lay eyes on them, but they seem so real; and at times familiar too. As for the parchment; I'm going to record everything unusual we've seen and heard in our dreams or concerning Lily."

"Good plan." Remus said nodding. "Well, the shoes seem to be a reoccurring feature or real life and of the dream world."

"Writing it down. Then there's the two figures; their concern for being discovered too soon and the trouble they would face; Evans." James listed the things that had occurred in his dreams.

"I blame you for all this you know." Remus stated solemnly.

"Me? What did I do?" James asked shock and annoyance running through him. He was clearly surprised that Remus was blaming him for the freaky dreams they were having. If he was really causing them he would have stopped them by now, even boys need their beauty sleep sometimes.

"Yesterday you said someone might have been testing something on Lily, trying to see if they could get to her. And then I have this crazy dream with covered people chasing her? Coincidence?" He explained.

"Merlin I hope that's all it was; a coincidence. If all this is real I don't think I could handle the stress."

James got up and walked towards Sirius's bed.

"What are you doing James?" Remus asked, twisting to watch James's actions.

"Waking the others, I have a favour to ask them. You too." He shook Sirius. "Padfoot, wake up."

"You ded Jams." Sirius mumbled into his pillows.

"_Jams_ needs help. You've got 2 minutes while I wake Peter." James replied turning to the final Marauder.

"Already done." Remus stated motioning to a sleepy Peter.

"I have a suggestion, a favour. You can go for it or not, it's up to you. But keep in mind it'll mean a lot to me if you go for it." James began.

"Just spit it out Prongs." Sirius mumbled once again, not bothering to lift his head from the pillow.

"Remus and I have a bad feeling that Lily is in trouble. I propose a sort of system, to watch over her. Make sure she's with someone at all times. I can't do it by myself." James continued looking at each Marauder individually.

"You want us to babysit Lily?" Peter asked trying to understand the suggestion through a muddled mind.

"I suppose it is like babysitting her." James said, acknowledging Peter's statement.

"Problem," Sirius said, finally looking at the group. "We're guys."

"And the problem is?" Remus asked confused.

"Well we certainly can't follow her _everywhere_." He made it sound like it was impossibly to do, even though everyone in the room knew they could find ways to be with Lily at all times; they just wouldn't be entirely legal.

"Then we recruit Alex and Dorcas too. Anything to keep her safe." James stated firmly.

"James, I thought you were getting over Lily." Remus said picking up on how strongly the image of Lily in trouble concerned James.

Sirius snorted. "I don't think it's possible for James to get over Lily. He's just no longer holding his breath for her to return his feelings."

James shrugged. "What he said."

"Right, first thing in the morning we work out who will watch Lily for the beginning of the day and talk to the girls about pitching in." Remus said heading back to his own bed. "For now, let's just get some more sleep."

"Easy for you to say." James whispered as he closed the curtains around him.

* * *

"Hey Evans, wait up!" Sirius yelled running up to Lily as she left the Great Hall after lunch. "Where are you off to, and mind if I join you?"

"Well I was heading to the loo, so I doubt you'd be welcome in the girl's bathroom." Lily answered, folding her hands over her chest. "My turn. Why does everyone keep following me?"

Sirius snorted. "Oh, you're hilarious Lily. _Everyone_ wants to be near you; _no-one_ can leave you alone. You growing a complex to rival James's? I just thought you'd be doing something fun before class._ Sorry_ if I was wrong."

Lily sighed. It had been like that all day: someone always being with her and at the same time avoiding all questions she had on the matter. If she didn't get a straight answer soon someone was going to get thrown down a flight of stairs.

"Fine, follow me if you must. But you're not coming into the bathroom with me." She pointed her finger at him, imitating a parent laying down the rules to a disobedient child.

'_That was close.'_ Sirius thought to himself. The other Marauders had been telling him about their own attempts to hide their agenda from Lily, now he knew how hard it must have been for them; Lily was often hard to lie to.

_'Why couldn't it be the girls' turn to babysit Lily? I would have taken a walking-to-class shift. Yes it would have seemed odd for Sirius Black to be walking to class on time, but at least it wouldn't seem like I wanted to follow people into the toilet!'_ Sirius said to himself as he stood outside the 2nd floor girl's bathroom waiting for Lily to exit so they could head off to class together. The day had been a crazy one, and it was not over yet. Not only was the group trying to keep Lily safe and hiding it too, but the Marauders were also organising the next full moon excursion which was just around the corner; while Peter somehow managed to stumble knocking down the people around him waiting to enter the charms room.

"Holy Hell!" Lily shrieked as she exited the bathroom to find Sirius still waiting for her. "You didn't leave!"

"You say that like you're surprised or something." Sirius said pushing himself off the wall and coming to stand next to Lily. "Now, we've got Transfiguration now don't we, or is it Herbology?"

"Herbology." Lily said, suspicion entering her voice.

They walked on in silence for a few minutes before Lily became fed-up with the situation. Sirius was standing ever so slightly in front of her, and had angled his body in a way that made it look like he was guarding her from something; what it was she needed to be guarded from Lily had no idea.

"Oh, would you look at that," Lily said glancing at her school bag. "I seem to have forgotten my Herbology book. I'll go get it."

"I'll come with you." Sirius said turning to follow her.

"No, no. You go on ahead, I won't be long." She motioned for him to continue and was shocked when Sirius grabbed her wrist instead and pulled her towards the castle grounds.

"Forget about the book, you can borrow someone else's."

Sirius didn't let go of Lily's wrist until they were inside Greenhouse 3. The look the rest of the Marauders gave him were ones of confusion and anger; but they were nothing compared to the look of frustration that refused to leave Lily's face for the rest of the day. Though Lily's protectors felt guilty at times for not informing her of their worries, they could not feel guilty for too long; anything to make sure Lily stayed safe.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you all enjoyed the Chapter. Once again I should have been doing uni work this week/weekend, but when you're bored, angry and not in the mood writing fanfiction seems to work. **

**Reviews are most welcome**

**~James' Girl Lily.**


	10. Do You Trust Me?

There You Were

Chapter 10: Do You Trust Me?

Disclaimer: As usual, I own nothing from Harry Potter. And for this chapter, I also don't own anything from Disney, nor Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass.

* * *

Lily was reflecting on the last few weeks as she sat on her bed, concealed behind the dark red curtains. The only privacy she'd received for a long time had been found in the Girl's Dormitory; more specifically her own bed. Escaping her friends had been difficult; no-one seemed to let her be alone anymore and it was driving her mad. No matter how many times Lily asked why they were so attached to her recently, she never seemed to get a straight answer.

It appeared that being in the Girl's Dormitory was a haven. No-one immediately followed her, or questioned where she was going when she needed to use the toilet; not when it was only a few feet away. Lily had begun spending every free moment on her bed or by the window. Though sitting by the window made her wish to be out in the open, Lily preferred this seat to her bed; at least it gave the illusion that she has freedom available to her.

Sighing, Lily walked over to the window and looked out at the empty grounds. December had begun, and soon it would snow. Already the air felt crisper, as though the moisture was deserting it, leaving behind the perfect weather for curling up in bed and reading, or sitting by an open fire.

Despite the growing chill of the coming night, Lily opened the window. Her dorm-mates would be angry at having the added cold in the room, but right now Lily needed to feel the fresh air wash over her. The window was big enough for Lily to swing her legs over the side, dangling them down the side of the tower.

_'It's not the safest thing to do,'_ Lily thought to herself. _'But right now, I don't care much for safety.'_

Searching the skies, she spotted a few owls leaving Hogwarts; obviously letters being sent off to parents and friends, probably preparing for the coming Christmas break. Lily had already decided to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays; it was her last chance to have Christmas within the halls, something she wanted to remember for a very long time._ 'And it will get me away from Petunia for a while longer.'_ She reasoned remembering that her sister was not the biggest fan of magic. _'It's not fair!'_ Lily continued. _'I didn't do anything to deserve such hatred. I didn't ask to be a witch, nor did I ask for her to be left behind.'_

A movement in the distance caught her attention. It looked like someone had taken advantage of the early evening by going for a fly around the grounds. Lily envied the Quidditch players and those who could fly; broomsticks didn't agree with her, she couldn't seem to control them for herself. She envied this person even more; whoever it was kept twisting and turning in ways beyond Lily's imagination. And yet, there seemed to be something oddly familiar about him; for she was certain the flyer was a male student.

Lily gasped. The person appeared to have spotted her. There's no escaping notice when one is dangling their legs out of a tower window with the light shining behind them. He manoeuvred his broom in her direction and slowly crept towards her. In less than 10 seconds realisation dawned upon her; it was James. He flew up to the window and stopped level with her face.

"Fancy seeing you here," He said smiling at her. "Aren't you cold?"

Lily shook her head, returning his smile. "No, I quite comfortable. I was just admiring your flying skills, gosh you're good."

James blushes and grinned. He was thankful that it was darker behind him than her, as it hid his face from view. "Ah, it's just lots of practice. I'm sure anyone could get this good if they tried."

"I doubt I could." Lily replied sighing. "I'm hopeless on a broom."

She jumped when James threw his hand out towards her. Staring first at his hand and then at him, Lily gave him a puzzling look.

"Do you trust me?" He asked pushing his hand towards her again.

"What?" She replied eyes wide as she understood what he was asking. As simple as that, just step off the windowsill and go flying with him?

"Do you trust me?" James asked more firmly.

"Yes." Lily said shakily as she put one hand in his and pushed herself into a standing position in the window. James's other hand guided her in front of him, as she settled herself upon his broom.

"Hold on." He whispered in her ear before pushing off the side of the tower and flying towards the lake.

If she hadn't already been to Hogwarts Lily would have described the view as Magical. The few lights from the castle spread their gleam over the grounds, shining on each moist surface making them glitter like fairy lights. The lake itself was a mirror, reflecting the sky and the two students as they flew across its surface.

James watched the excitement that crept over Lily's face as every common thing turned beautiful in her eyes. It made him wonder why she hadn't tried learning to fly earlier; then he might have had company on his evening flights.

"Isn't it amazing?" Lily asked, squeezing the hand that held her in place. "All the little sparkly things, all the-" she stopped when James began to laugh. "What?"

He shook his head. "Sparkly things? I thought you had a larger vocabulary than that."

"Words don't describe this feeling for me, this freedom. Especially not recently." She muttered more to herself than to James.

"You're going to have to give me more than that if you're looking for a reply." James stated pulling the broom to a stop.

Lily grabbed hold of the handle frantically. "Warnings please!" She screeched, twisting slightly to face him. "Not all of us have Quidditch skills that allow us to move with the stops and starts of the broom!" His face told her that she wasn't going to avoid giving an answer. "I feel so crowded these days; you all won't leave me alone. I can't breathe."

James looked away.

"Oh, so you've noticed that part too have you. Well fine, don't tell me why you're doing it. Just don't ruin this moment for me, this freedom, please?"

"We'll head over to the Quidditch stands." James said to Lily as they moved away from the lake. "You can stand among the empty seats and feel alone. We'll continue the flight later."

"Thanks James." She whispered in return.

He set them down gently and helped Lily step off the broom. She wandered up the stand and stopped at a random row of seats. Hopping slightly, she jumped upon them and began to move her way down the row; twisting, turning, dancing.

"There's something else that made the flight more exciting to you." James stated watching her from the bottom of the stand. "If you just wanted space you could have asked me to fly you to the roof of the castle and let you stand there for a few minutes."

"Like I said before, not all of us have flying skills. I don't get to do that very often."

"Then practice." He said, as though it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"When? And with what?" She shot back. "School was always filled up with work, and hanging out. And home? Forget about it. Try asking a muggle family to buy their youngest daughter a _broom_, so she could fly about the backyard. There's no space and people always watching. It's almost impossible to do anything."

"You need a place of you own." James commented.

"If I had a place of my own, nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would." Lily said, turning and smiling at James.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, confusion clearly written upon his face.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" She replied, dancing along another row of seats.

"Well, I think –" James began

"Curtsey while you're thinking," Lily said cutting him off. "It saves time."

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." He stated, folding his arms over his chest, as he continued to watch her enjoy her freedom.

"Yes!" She exclaimed, surprise evident in her voice. "One of my favourite novels, though the line actually comes from its sequel: Through the Looking Glass. I also adore the Disney movie."

"I know, I've read the books myself. But, ah; what's a Diss-Knee?" The look on his face made Lily laugh so hard she had to sit down.

"D-I-S-N-E-Y. It's a company. They make fabulous cartoons out of fairy tales; helped me to believe in magic."

"It must be nice having something non-magical in your life; something that allows you to leave your witchy troubles behind." He mused glaring at the castle.

"I used to think so, but I've become so attached to the magical community that I have a hard time letting it go. I'll move out of home once the school year ends; find something closer to magic. I haven't a clue where though."

They looked at each other in silence for a moment before James got up to view the grounds once more.

"We should probably go back inside; stay out much longer and you'll freeze to death."

"Goodbye freedom." She whispered before James helped her back on the broom. With one have on the broom and one around her waist, James pushed off and headed back to the Gryffindor tower.

After dropping Lily off at her room, James headed upstairs to find the other Marauders.

"We're going to stop following Lily everywhere." He said bursting into the seventh year boy's dormitory. Remus jumped as he did so.

"You mean operation Babysit-Lily is over? Did you catch the bad guy?" Sirius asked from his bed, not bothering to glance up at his best friend.

"No, I still haven't worked out what this all means; but nothing has happened for weeks and it's getting ridiculous checking up on her all the time. _We_ can't do as much during the day, and She can hardly breathe. We need to loosen our hold." James explained still standing in the doorway.

"What made you change your mind?" Remus asked. He knew just how terrified James had been at the thought of the mysterious people getting Lily. Remus never thought James would give in like this.

"Lily did. She needs space and I'm going to give it to her."

* * *

**A/N: So there you have it. A lot more Lily and James bonding stuff, I was in a "let's give them love" kind of mood. **

**Hope you all enjoyed it. **

**Reviews are most welcome.**

**~James' Girl Lily. **


	11. Up to no Good

There You Were

Chapter 11: Up to no good.

Disclaimer: I own nothing Harry Potter related

_Dedicated to __Sirius' Sweetheart,__ who reminded me that the Marauders need love too. _

* * *

It was breakfast time on the Thursday before Christmas and the girls had just joined the Marauders; only one appeared to be missing.

"Where's Remus?" Dorcas asked in her usual morning voice. "He was supposed to give me those potion notes I missed last week because of that stupid back-fired transfiguration project. Honestly, I swear I said the incantation correctly, and yet suddenly I end up with claws."

The Marauders stiffened. They knew why Remus wasn't around; it was a full moon tonight, and there was no way he was well enough to go about the daily routine. But for some unknown reason, the guys had forgotten to clarify which story they were sticking with this time.

"He had to visit Madame Pomfrey, you know, Marauder Mischief gone bad." James replied quickly.

"His mother's ill, so he went to visit her. I keep telling him, a boy who looks after his mother so much will never find a girlfriend; but he just never listens." Sirius answered at the same time as James, though more casually than his best friend.

While Peter blurted out, "We're playing hide-and-seek!"

"Oo, Good one." James whispered to Peter. It wasn't even lying much, as they often played hide-and-seek both in and out of the castle.

"Hide-and-seek? So early in the morning?" Alex asked. "And in a castle this big, wouldn't a game like that be safer being played on the weekend; so you had more time to hide and a lot more time to seek?"

"Well, we weren't just playing it this morning." Peter covered up quickly.

"That's right," Sirius took over. "It was a last night thing and well, I really wanted his hiding spot. I meant for the jinx to be a mild one, but I slipped at the last minute. Poor Remus never had a chance. So we hauled him off to the Infirmary, and that's when he found out his mother was ill. Once he was fixed up himself, he went off home."

They looked at the girls sitting across from them, and held their breath. It was a long shot that they'd actually believe them. They waited for a response.

"You boys really need to learn how to recount a story." Lily stated shaking her head. The boys exhaled. "Thank goodness Sirius has half a brain and pieced the story together, otherwise we might have been here for hours wondering whether Remus came home from his mother's place, then played hide-and-seek; _before_ being rushed off to the Infirmary."

"We'll, um, work on that one for you Lily." James said taking another piece of bacon off a tray.

"Did you hear that, I have half a brain!" Sirius beamed. The group rolled their eyes.

* * *

"That was close." Peter whispered as they opened the doors leading to the castle grounds. "I thought you were reading the Map Sirius"

Sirius looked up "What? Oh, right, the Map. Well I was reading it and everything _appeared_ to be clear, just like I said. But I forgot about that darn Cat!"

The boys were almost caught sneaking around the castle. Despite having their secret Marauder's Map that told them who else was wandering the castle they still managed to bump into Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat. Luckily for them, James covered them with his invisibility cloak, just in case.

"Maybe you should have changed Padfoot, given old Norris a fright her little kitty heart would never forget." James said giving Sirius a nudge.

"Well maybe next time I will." Sirius replied, nudging him back.

"Next time?" Peter said giving Sirius a questioning look. "Merlin, I hope not."

By this time they had made their way across the Hogwarts ground to the big and seemingly old willow tree. It had been planted the year they came to Hogwarts, though it wasn't an ordinary willow tree. It was called the Whomping Willow, and it tried very hard to hurt you if you got too near. And it was to this tree that the boys were now headed. It was planted because of their dear friend Remus, to hide him from the students of Hogwarts on nights of the Full Moon. Poor Remus was troubled at this time, for he was a werewolf; and as such, was dangerous to those at Hogwarts.

However, this condition of Remus's didn't both the other Marauders. They were willing to see past it, because they knew just how good a friend Remus was. It's because of this that they worked hard to become Animagi over their years at Hogwarts. Animals were in less danger of being harmed by a werewolf; and this way the boys were still able to hang out with their best friend during his time of need.

"Righty-o Wormtail," Sirius began, turning to his friend and giving him a pat on the shoulder. "It's knot pressing time."

The boys had discovered that if you pressed the knot at the base of the Whomping Willow it would stand motionless long enough for them to enter the tunnel that led to Remus's hiding place. With a little _pop_, Peter the human disappeared and in his place was a large rat. Standing at a distance, Sirius and James watched as Peter raced towards the tree's trunk and proceeded to press the knot.

"Excellent!" James whispered into the still night as he and Sirius caught up to Peter.

"We're off to see the Wizard." Sirius sang, and they slid down into the dark tunnel.

* * *

Dorcas sighed. Lily had already gone off to bed, claiming that it was a school night and she wasn't going to sit around and waste precious sleeping time. Lily had always been like that, early to bed and an early riser too. She sighed again. What was she supposed to do by herself on a Thursday night?

Sound on the stairs made her turn. Alex was walking down them with determination. She had a look upon her face that said she had a plan and was sticking to it.

"Hey Alex," Dorcas waved from where she was sitting. "What's up?"

"Oh, Dorcas," Alex said jumping. "You scared the life out of me. What are you doing sitting around by yourself, where is everyone?"

"Well Lily went to bed ages ago, and I haven't seen the Marauders since breakfast." As Dorcas finished her sentence Alex had made her way to the portrait hole. "Where are you going?"

"To meet with the Boyfriend." She said as though it were obvious. "I do this every Thursday, remember?"

"Yeah, but normally I'm not alone. When are we going to be introduced to your new guy, you're keeping him so hidden I'm beginning to wonder if he even exists." Dorcas had meant it to be a joke, but Alex's eyes narrowed and her face turned hard.

"Oh, He exists." She said through a clenched jaw.

"Alright, alright." Dorcas said holding up her hands. "I just want to make sure he's good enough for you."

"He's perfect; really, there's no need to worry." Alex replied becoming cheerful once again. "Although he might be a little annoyed if I keep him waiting much longer. I'll see you tomorrow."

She left before Dorcas had a chance to respond. "Bye, Alex. Strange."

* * *

"How do you think Remus is feeling on this fine night?" Sirius asked as the boys continued to make their way along the dark tunnel.

"How do you think he's feeling Padfoot?" Peter said sarcastically. "He's stuck in a stuffy old room and desires fresh meat; I think he'd be rather uncomfortable and agitated."

James turned to face them. He'd been leading the group and had just passed their marker that told them the entrance to the shack was just around the corner. As if on cue, a howl sounded from above them. Peter gave Sirius a knowing look.

"Well that was a lucky guess." Sirius huffed looking at his shoes.

"Alrighty boy," James said placing a smile on his face. "It's show time." His comments were met with three small _pop_s and in the place of the Hogwarts students were three animals. One was the rat that had pushed the button; Peter. The other two boys took the form of a large black dog, who appeared to be rather eager to enter the rooms above him; and a brilliant white stag, whose antlers barely fit in the tiny tunnel. Using his antlers, the stag pushed open the door around the corner and tentatively walked into the room beyond.

'_Hasn't changed much.'_ The stag thought to himself. Motioning with his head he called the others in. The dog went bounding past him and made his way upstairs; a short yelp told the animals below that he hadn't taken Remus by surprise, he never did. _'Damn Sirius, never cautious.'_

It had been a tradition for Sirius to alert Remus to their presence, although he had a habit of doing it by jumping on the werewolf. However, Remus's stronger senses never left him unprepared. The stag, who had to be James, leant down and allowed Peter to climb upon his back. Remus didn't try to hurt them anymore, but sometimes he got over excited, and a rat was no match for a werewolf; one strong leap and Peter would have a hard time recovering.

Making their way upstairs, James observed his surroundings. Nothing much had changed downstairs, but there had certainly been changes upstairs. The wallpaper covering the stairway was pealing off the walls in oddly shaped patterns. _'Claw marks.'_ James thought, they were claw marks from intense scratching. '_Remus must have been anxious earlier.'_ It appeared that the wall paper was the worst of the damage this time around, but on other occasions bits of furniture had been Remus's victim.

James trotted into the room upstairs which resembled a bedroom. The boys had often commented on why a werewolf would need a bed during his crazy night.

'_Well I can understand if he had a lady werewolf friend, then they might want to use the bed.' Sirius had said one day after their full moon visits. Remus was still gaining his strength back and the boys had been wandering the castle trying to find something to do without him._

'_Sirius!' Peter yelled, his glare had made Sirius lean against the wall laughing, after a moment or two James joined him. _

"_What? It's not like he's here; and besides, it's a fair comment. I don't see why there's a bed, it's hardly worth trying to make him comfortable. Obviously whoever put it there has no idea what he goes through during these transformations. Added furniture will only give him a reason to get angry at something.' _

Coming back to the present, James noticed that Remus was mirroring Sirius's actions. First they both raised their front right paw, and then rolled over, before chasing their tails for a short moment. Sirius encouraged this every time they arrived, to show they were friendly visitors. The next move was to walk up to James and Peter and give then a good long sniff. Sure enough, Remus and Sirius padded over to the remaining boys and circled them slowly. James stood still with Peter slightly shivering on his back, as a smaller animal he was often scared easier; but the wolf didn't hurt them. He gave them a small snort, grinned and then began chasing Sirius around the room. James was quick to take up the chase and soon all four of them were enjoying themselves.

It wasn't hard to get along with Remus in his werewolf stage. He understood them fairly well and always enjoyed himself. If he wasn't likely to hunt the surrounding students and residents in Hogsmead the boys would have taken him out to the Forbidden Forrest and allowed him to stretch his legs. They'd tried it once but Remus was a bit too wild with excitement, and they were too nervous to try it again. None of them wanted Remus to wake up the next morning and found out he'd done something terrible; it was better on all of them if he stayed indoors.

'_I wish we could bring chess with us, or exploding snap.'_ _Peter had mentioned one day while the boys were discussing their next trip. _

'_I think I'd have a bit of trouble learning those ones in my wolfy state.' Remus had replied, chuckling at the thought of a werewolf playing chess. _

'_Bet he'd still beat us ever with the added disadvantage.' Sirius mumbled to James who just smiled._

As it was they found plenty to keep them occupied during their trips. Tonight they settled on hide-and-seek. It mainly consisted of Sirius or James distracting Remus while Peter ran off to hide and then, after a 40 second head start, they let him loose and all three of the bigger animals searched the house until they found him.

The evening always ended with Remus asleep on the floor, he never used the bed, and the boys slowly creeping out of the shack.

"Far out, I thought he was going to eat me that last time." Peter said once they were inside the tunnel once more. "He had that hungry look on face, and I swear he licked his lips."

"He did not." Sirius answered giving Peter a small shove into the wall next to them. "And anyway, even if he had James and I were there almost instantly after he found you. You had nothing to worry about."

"Well next time try and get there a bit quicker." Peter mumbled as he continued to walk along with his friends.

"Will do Wormtail." James replied patting him on the back.

* * *

"What!?" A male voice sounded in the dark corridor.

"I said tomorrow you make yourself known." The light female voice answered him. "I thought I said it perfectly clear the first time."

"Our rules are to never get caught." The man stated trying to mirror her calm voice, he didn't succeed.

"Well the rules are being changed to minimise questions!" She spat back before giggling slightly. "Don't worry, I'll protect you."

* * *

**And there you have it: The latest chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it, as I had fun writing it! **

**Reviews are always welcome. **

**~James' Girl Lily. **


	12. Seal of Approval

There You Were.

Chapter: 12: Seal of Approval

* * *

Lily stared at her plate mentally yelling at herself for being dragged into an apparent "Marauder tradition" of telling each other their latest most memorable dream.

She began, glancing over at James. "And then, there you were, standing in the middle of _nowhere,_ holding out your hand and telling me to 'grab hold' and that 'everything would be ok.' It was the strangest dream."

"Middle of nowhere?" Sirius questioned, giving Lily a strange look.

"I mean it! There was literally nothing else around. I'm chocking half to death in nothing. There were no walls, no vast and endless fields that were pleasing to the eye, not even a chair to sit on. I don't know where James came from or what he was doing there but he saved my dream-self from dying." Lily snapped glaring at Sirius in defence of her dream.

"Well if he's such a wonderful person, your knight in shining armour, then why are you dating him already?" Sirius asked, watching as Lily looked away her face turning slightly pink.

"I said my dream-self Sirius. James appears to be my knight in shining armour _in my dreams_." She replied flatly.

"I'm sure he could be your Prince Charming in real life too, if you pushed his buttons correctly." Sirius said giving her a wink and earning himself a kick under the table. "Ow."

James was about to break up their argument, even though he had no idea what to say that would stop it, when he was saved from doing so by the arrival of Alex and a Hufflepuff seventh year student.

"Guys and girlies," Alex grinned when she stood in front of the group. "I wan you to meet my boyfriend, Ryan."

The boy standing next to her raised his head slightly in response to his name and was met by complete silence. None of them seemed to know what to say. The only Ryan they knew of in their year was Ryan Hedley, a student who rarely said anything and tried with all his might to stay away from social functions. The Marauders looked at each other and shrugged; Dorcas's mouth dropped, there was no denying Ryan's good looks but his reputation and mannerisms had her believing Alex wouldn't dream of dating someone like him; Lily stared for a moment before catching herself and jumping to her feet.

"Hi Ryan." She stated cheerfully, throwing her hand out towards him to introduce herself. James hid a grin. "So you're the fellow who's captured our Alex's attention."

He gave a nod, ignoring Lily's hand. Only a glance from Alex made him speak up. "So it would seem."

James's head snapped up, suddenly curious about this mysterious boy. He was so used Alex going through new boyfriends that it hadn't concerned him meeting the guy of the moment. But there was something about him that had him on edge, though looking around him he realised that he wasn't the only one.

Lily's hand hung in the air for a few seconds before she pulled it back. "Would you like to join us for breakfast, we've only just started ourselves and classes aren't for a little while."

"No thanks," Ryan replied in a gruff voice. Turning to Alex he gave her a kind look before muttering a small goodbye and heading for the doors.

The group sat in silence swapping glances every now and then while they finished breakfast. No-one could understand what had just occurred. Normally, when meeting someone new, they would have expected a bit of communication to happen. While Alex had seemed enthusiastic about the meeting, Ryan didn't appear as excited to meet his girlfriend's friends.

They slowly got up and headed for Potions, the class everyone but Peter took for their final year. He said goodbye to them at the stairs and made his way towards the divination tower. The silence continued, until finally Dorcas had enough.

"Hedley, Ryan Hedley?" She asked in disbelief.

"What's wrong with Ryan?" Alex shot back through gritted teeth.

"There's nothing wrong with him, I just didn't think he socialised much." Dorcas muttered in defence.

"Alex, we're happy you're happy. We just don't know much about Ryan. We'd love to get to know him better and see his better side." Lily said glaring at Dorcas, who'd rolled her eyes knowing at Lily's average response.

"There's something oddly familiar about that guy, like I've seen him before." Sirius said narrowing his eyes, trying to figure out what was triggering his memory.

"Like having Herbology with him this year?" Remus asked sarcastically, giving Sirius a shove in the arm.

"Oh ha, ha." Sirius replied, shoving him back with more force than the situation required; though not in any way to harm Remus. "I meant out of Hogwarts. And I'm leaning towards my parents' place. But that can't be right because they're all Death E – really bad people."

James glanced at Sirius worryingly. He knew what company Mr and Mrs Black kept at their place. Now his own suspicions about Ryan had peaked even further. What was it with this guy that made them all so worried?

"Well I think he's fine." Lily said glaring at them all now. "God, just because Alex decided not to date any of _the perfect hansom and wonderful Marauders_ doesn't mean you have to shoot down the person she does choose." Turning to Alex she continued. "Is he coming to Hogsmead with us before Christmas break, or are you two going to get some alone time together?" She wiggled her eyebrows as she asked her question gaining a snort from Dorcas and a laugh from Sirius.

Alex smiled, happy that one of her friends was open to the idea of Ryan. "We might start with you guys and wander off on our own. Actually I was meaning to ask you something about that." She grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her off towards the Potions classroom, where they were headed next, leaving the others behind.

"Ryan Hedley." Dorcas shook her head. "That guy will still give me the creeps, even if Alex is dating him or not."

"Why, what's wrong with him?" James asked as they began the walk to the dungeons.

"That I know of? He tried to bring a snake to school as his 'pet'." She used air quotations to signify the loose term of pet. "And then threw a fit when he couldn't. And have you noticed, he only ever wears black?"

"So do all the Slytherins." Remus pointed out.

"Yeah, but he's not in Slytherin." Dorcas shot back. "And before you start saying 'But anyone can wear black,' it's almost as if he was placed in the wrong house. Above all he just sends off this vibe that freaks me out and –" Whatever else she was going to say was cut off by a high scream. Instantly the boys took off at a run in its direction.

"Are you insane?" I voice screeched from in front. It was Lily.

"She's not who you think she is." An answering voice exclaimed.

"Merlin, Severus, you just punched one of my best friends in the face and you want me to believe _she's_ the one who isn't who I thought she was?"

"Look, believe me or don't believe me but –" He began. Lily cut him off.

"I choose not to believe you." She stated firmly, before giving her full attention to Alex who was lying on the floor slowly sitting up. By this stage their other friends had caught up to them.

"Alright Snivellus?" Sirius asked standing next to the girls, his wand clutched in his hand.

Severus took one look at the large group before turning away and heading into the classroom.

"Stupid git." James muttered. "I wonder what that was all about?"

"Me too." Alex said from the floor. "Me too."

"Ugh," Lily said staring at the wall. "I'm so sick of him coming up to me and pretending we're still close friends and like he has a right to care about what's occurring in my life when he was the one who dropped it all years ago. And I'm sick of getting angry every time he comes near me. Someone shoot me next time so I don't have to put up with any of this anymore."

"Shoot you." Sirius snorted shaking his head. "It's not exactly gun-city here Lils."

"Fine then, stun me. Does that work better for you?" She replied glaring, though her anger had already evaporated enough that the glare did nothing but make Sirius laugh.

* * *

Potions had been a disaster. Professor Slughorn had to send four students to the infirmary, including Snape, because of potions gone wrong. No-one could pinpoint the reason behind the messed-up potions, at least not with hard evidence to back their theories up; but they all had their suspicions.

The girls didn't say a word all lesson. Lily was still fuming because of Severus, Alex was angry at Dorcas for not accepting Ryan, and with no-one else to talk freely to Dorcas had remained silent. When the lesson finished, Lily made sure to walk behind the rest of the group as they made their way to Defence Against the Dark Arts, that way she wouldn't have to discuss mindless things with her friends while she didn't have control of her thoughts. She didn't want to say something she'd regret later.

Sitting in class learning about defensive spells didn't help her mood much. Lily kept imagining the sorts of situations that could ever make her used cloaking spells or diversion incantations and didn't like the thought of them. To be helpless in any situation was never a good option, but to only have a few meaningless spells to help fight out of them? The idea made her feel weak. She deliberately only tried the spells out once or twice, trying so hard not to think while performing them.

When the class finished and everyone was packing up to go to lunch Lily thought the weakness she felt would go away, but it didn't.

'_That's odd.'_ She thought to herself, slowly falling in line with the rest of her friends. _'I must be tired, or drained or something.'_ She reasoned with herself, trying to come up with an explanation for her sudden lack of energy. When she wobbled slightly, James caught her arm and steadied her, concern covering his face.

"You alright?" He asked still holding onto her arm.

"Fine." She replied shaking her head and smiling up at him. "Just a whole lot of bad thoughts. Trying to get rid of them."

He slowly let go of her arm. When she didn't topple over he gave a small nod and moved to her side. They continued to walking, simultaneously picking up the pace as their small paused had left them behind.

Lily gasped and dropped her bag; flinging parchment, paper and quills all over the floor. "Bugger."

"Whoopsi-daisy." James muttered, bending down to help Lily pick up her scattered things and expecting to meet Lily half-way there only she still hadn't moved from her standing position. Forgetting the items on the floor, James stood up quickly and placed a hand on Lily's shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." She whispered. "I don't feel good. My head feels all wobbly."

Before he could ask anymore questions James jumped backwards in shock as Lily screamed. Crumpling to the floor, Lily clutched her head in agony and continued to scream.

* * *

**A/N: Cliff-hanger…haven't done that before. Hope the chapter was enjoyable. I'd write a longer author's note but I'm tired and have a new book calling my name. **

**James' Girl Lily**


	13. Separated by Pain

There You Were

Chapter 13: Separated by Pain.

**WARNING: Less than perfect language used in this chapter!**

* * *

"LILY!" James yelled, dropping the items in his hand and sliding over to where she lay clutching her head. Her screaming had lessened, though her face was still screwed up; a picture of agony. "Lily, tell me what's wrong."

The demand in James's voice broke through her pain faintly, as though he was talking from a distance. "M-my head," Lily stuttered. "It feels like it's being compressed from all side-ah!" She screamed again.

James wasted no more time. Picking her up as though she weighed almost nothing, he raced off down the hall. Lily was whimpering in his arms trying desperately to ignore the stabbing that was going on inside her head.

"Make it stop." She cried out, digging her finger nails into her skull trying to release the pressure she felt. James gasped as he saw the blood welling up at the side of her head.

'_I'll have to remember to cut her nails after this.'_ He thought to himself as he rushed past their friends and down a different corridor.

"James!" Remus called out as he watched them go. Looking briefly at Sirius, they took off at a run. "Wait up!"

"Can't wait." James yelled over his shoulder, ignoring the pain in his legs and mentally hitting himself for not having the energy for this sort of thing. Lily screamed again. With each scream she appeared to get weaker. "Stay awake Lils, we're almost at the Infirmary."

Sirius stumbled at the sound of the scream. "Was that Lily?"

"Hurry James," She whispered, her eyes drooping. "It hurts too much to concentrate on staying conscious. Sleep will make it better."

"Don't you dare fall asleep!" James said sternly, narrowly missing running into a wall as he turned another corner.

"I have to take the pain away." Lily said pressing her nails to her head again. 'Why isn't this working?" Her voice rising an octave at the end.

"I don't know Lils." James admitted. He was terrified for her, but was more worried that she wouldn't stay awake long enough to make it to Madame Pomfrey. "Just keep talking. Tell me about your family life. What's having a sister like?" He was met with silence.

"Lily?" She'd passed out. "Shit!"

* * *

Lily looked up carefully. The pain had gone, but where was she and why wasn't James with her anymore?

'_This doesn't make sense.'_ She thought to herself.

She was in a room, that much was certain; though it wasn't as if she'd woken up lying on a bed as one would expect after being cured from excruciating pain. Lily was sure she'd just appeared. But that couldn't be right; no-one just _appeared_ in a room, at least not before thinking about it and apparating.

The walls were a deep red and judging from the smell in the room only newly painted, though Lily noted that it didn't appear to have a paint-like scent. She ran her fingers across the wall and they came back wet. "Ugh."

Lily gasped when she heard footsteps coming from outside the room. Running over to the exit she hid behind the door just as the footstep stopped. She heard the rattle of the handle being twisted before light flooded into the room, signifying the opening of the door.

"Who's the master sent to us this time?" A high female voice asked for the other side of the door. Her voice sounded excited and sent shivers down Lily's spine. "Oh I do hope it's someone entertaining."

"There doesn't seem to be anyone in here." Another female voice, kinder than the first, stated calmly.

"How can that be?" The first voice demanded. "There are alarms set in here. They only go off when someone is inside."

A sigh came from beside Lily, sounding too close for comfort. She held her breath and hoped the mystery people on the other side of the door would leave soon. Her heart was racing loudly and she was sure if they stayed any longer they'd be able to hear it too.

"There must be something wrong with it." The calm voice answered. "We'll go talk to the Master, perhaps he sent someone down here already."

"I hope you're right. I'd hate to have missed all the fun. Torture is such an enjoyable way to pass the boredom down here. And maybe we can give this room another coat; the last batch of blood hardly darkened it up enough."

Lily stifled a gasp and looked down at her fingers covered in what she'd thought was red paint. _'Blood?'_

"Hardly, indeed." The second voice agreed as the door began to close. "Though I suppose that's what happens when you mix paint and blood. Not nearly enough blood goes through."

Resisting the urge to scream and panic, Lily raced over to where she'd first been when she arrived and tried desperately to search for another exit to the room. Obviously she had to have come in from this direction; there must have been a trap door or a portal. There was no way she'd try her luck escaping through the other door. Her heart hadn't stopped racing and no matter how many times she told herself to calm down she couldn't seem to follow through with the suggestion.

When the door opened suddenly once again Lily couldn't contain her frightful scream as she jumped and tripped over her foot, falling to the ground. She looked up into the face of a dark haired man. He had a strong build; though Lily was surprised she'd noticed this as most of his body was covered by the black robe he was wearing. Lily was stunned by the fact that he was smiling at her. Fear crept over her at the thought of these people enjoying torturing people.

'_His smile doesn't look sadistic.'_ A part of her noticed. _'It's almost _friendly_.'_

"Miss Evans, welcome." His voice was raspy and she could tell he was over emphasising his greeting for the benefit of his shadows. Lily had finally noticed the crowd that gathered behind him. "Come now, you don't want to sit on the floor of this room anymore. We'll move to a more comfortable setting." He reached his hand out to her, but she jerked away from him hoping her actions would speak louder than words.

A groan sounded from behind the man. "Just grab her, my Lord. She's nothing but a worthless mudblood, there's no need to treat her with respect; they don't deserve it."

"Patience," Said the man, obviously the Master and Lord of this strange manor. "We don't plan to hurt Miss Evans."

"_We what?"_ The exclamation startled Lily. It was the same voice who wanted torture earlier. "If she stays in this room I _demand_ blood!"

The Lord smirked. "You appear to have a choice, Miss Evans. You can stay here and be tortured by my dear Bellatrix, or come have tea with me." He once again held his hand out to her. Lily threw her own arm out and clutched onto him, allowing herself to be raised to her feet and ushered out the door.

Lily was pleased to see that blood did not cover the walls of the hall, though she was not sure that would guarantee she wouldn't become the walls herself. She was directed into a brightly lit and furnished room, unlike the one she had just come from. Relief washed over her when she noticed these walls had dark, but wallpapered not painted.

"Please take a seat." The Lord directed, pulling out a chair from a quaint little tea table. The people following had stopped at the door, and indication that they were probably not permitted to be here. Seating himself, he continued. "It's time we had a little chat."

"Where am I?" Lily asked, speaking for the first time since she'd arrived; her voice sounding slightly croaky. "Who are you? How did I get here?"

The Lord smiled again. "All valid questions. I'm afraid I can't answer all three. You got here through a spell of mine, it's very ingenious if I might say so myself. It's a distance and transportation spell. Allows you to be in two places at once while miles in between. My apologies for the pain earlier today, a side effect of the transportation. You couldn't very well arrive without a body to wander around in, but pulling your entire body over a large distance is a lot trickier than it seems, especially if it is done unwillingly. You original body is safely contained at Hogwarts still and not to worry, I'll be sending you back soon enough. When your new body is in the same room as the old you'll rejoin immediately, not harm done. As to who I am. I'm sure you've heard of me. I am Lord Voldemort."

Lily's eyes widened. "Lord _Voldemort?_"

"I'll take that as recognition of my existence. I had hoped to stay unknown for a while longer, but with so many powerful witches and wizards understanding my views it becomes harder to hide. You know how it is. Sugar? Milk?" He asked casually.

"Neither. I don't want to sit here discussing the separation and creation of a new body over a _cup of tea!_" Lily stated firmly. "Tell me what it is you want from me and then send me back."

"I thought it would be obvious be now." Voldemort said, taking a small sip from the cup in front of him. "I've been told you're showing promise in the magical community; full of power. I want you to join me."

"Who in their right mind well tell _you_ of all people of a muggleborn witch with power? I thought your goal was to rid the world of the tainted blood and rule through those who are pure." She spat at him, her fear slowly etching away. The thought of drinking tea with the evil man in front of her made fear seem almost impossible.

"I'm not above recognising when someone excels." He replied sternly, the calm exterior dropping momentarily. "Severus said you'd be an asset to my little…collection."

"Severus? Severus Snape?" Lily asked incredulously. She felt as though the blood had been drained from her body; weak and empty. "He follows you?"

Voldemort grinned evilly. "I prefer to think he admires me over everyone else."

"I can't believe you!" Lily screeched. "You kill and torture innocent people for fun, just because they don't agree with you. And you expect me to just drop my previous beliefs and join the murdering band-wagon? You're more insane than I thought you were."

His face had lost the entertaining expression he'd worn throughout their conversation. "It's not a wise decision to defy me Miss Evans."

Looking wildly around the room Lily spotted a row of wands on a nearby table. They obviously belonged to the followers outside; apparently Lord Voldemort wasn't keen on others being in control of any power. "You don't really have a say in that department." She said firmly before jumping up and dashing over to the wands. Picking one up she hoped it wouldn't hurt her too much, not being her own wand. Twisting on the spot, she apparated out of the room.

"Very resourceful," Voldemort commented watching the place where Lily had just disappeared from. "But that would be strike one."

* * *

Lily landed in Hogsmead painfully. It was dark on the streets, indicating that she'd been gone for quite some time. Getting her bearings she set off towards Hogwarts at a run, stolen wand still clutched in her hand. She wondered if it could be used to track the owner.

By the time the castle was in view Lily's legs were burning with heat. In fact her whole body was warm and she felt slightly light headed, as though she wasn't completely real. Looking down at her hands she noticed they were slightly transparent, though the wand still looked whole.

Pushing open the front doors, she raced towards the infirmary hoping her body was still there; she wanted to be whole once again.

When the infirmary doors slammed against the walls admitting Lily the people, professors and students, surrounding her unconscious body jumped and turned to look at the intruder.

"_Lily?_" Sirius said his mouth opening with surprise. And suddenly she was gone. The wand clattered to the floor.

The Lily in the bed sat up gasping. She was one again.

* * *

**A/N: I have to admit that was one of my favourite chapters that I've ever written. I've developed a soft spot for the masterminds behind evil intensions this week, so writing Voldemort allowed me to further the obsession. **

**Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. **

**Reviews are most welcome. **

**James' Girl Lily**


	14. Watching You

There You Were

Chapter 14: Watching You

* * *

"This feels wrong." Sirius said warily.

"Stop being such a baby." Lily replied firmly. "James never has a problem with it."

He groaned. "As if James would have a problem doing _this._"

"Fine then, Remus doesn't mind either." said Lily in a resigned tone.

"I just don't get why you need yet another person to do this with. You've got James and Remus who seem ok with it, and the girls definitely don't mind. Why do you need me and Peter? Leave us to be men."

Lily didn't reply, she'd already closed the cubicle door. They were in the girl's bathroom on the seventh floor of Hogwarts. They'd made sure there was no-one in the western side of the floor and had Peter outside guarding the door. Ever since Lily had been attacked by Lord Voldemort she'd reinstated her constant guard, though this time she approved of it and understood why they were following her.

Sirius looked around. "I've had so many fantasies about seeing the inside of a girl's bathroom with a sexy member of the opposite sex; but this is totally different."

"Quit your complaining." Came the reply. "You two were the only ones who were available at the time, I couldn't wait for someone more convenient to come along and whisk me off to the loo. And if you can hold on for 2 more minutes you'll be out of the bathroom and no your merry way."

The bathroom door opened and Peter's head peaked through. "Someone's coming." He moved quickly across the distance between the door and a cubicle and hide inside.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake." Sirius grumbled and hoped into the cubicle next to Lily's. Addressing the girl next to him, he said. "Don't come out until whoever it is leaves."

Lily giggled in reply before the door once again opened.

"Did he seriously send you a note in History of Magic?" a small squeaky voice whispered to their unknown friend as their footsteps indicated a move towards the taps at the end of the room. "He's so brave."

"He said he liked my hair." said the second person. "And that he couldn't wait until we were old enough to go to Hogsmead so we could go together."

"Oh, please." Sirius muttered a little loudly than he meant to. The girls outside gasped.

"Wh-who's there?" The first asked shakily.

There was silence for a moment until Sirius and Peter heard the toilet flush in the cubicle next to them. Quick on her feet, Lily had stepped up to take the lead.

'_Great, now she's exposed and we're in here hiding. We're perfect bodyguards.'_ Sirius thought to himself.

"Girl," Lily said in her Head Girl voice. "I trust you've been paying attention to your lessons, and not just concerning yourself with which boy is courting you this week?"

"Did she really just say _courting_?" Peter whispered to Sirius who shrugged in return.

"W-we were li-listening." One of them replied. "I have my notes. In my bag."

"Notes won't be necessary." Lily answered her voice was a lot calmer than when she'd begun. Water was heard streaming from the tap, indicating that Lily was continuing her business as though nothing was wrong. "But studying here is a privilege and using those moments to gossip won't allow you to get anywhere."

Sirius thought she'd won them over until the other girl spoke. "What would _you_ know about privilege? You're nothing but a muggle and you think you're all that, but you've got _nothing_ on us. Come on Sarah." Footsteps echoed towards the door and then there was silence.

"You can come out now." Lily whispered from the other side of their door. "They're gone."

Sirius yanked open the cubicle door and looked directly at Lily. "Do not, for one moment, think you're beneath them." He stated firmly as he took in her fallen face.

"I'm not." She said meeting his gaze and rolling her eyes. "Honestly, I know it should mean nothing and I have proof that I'm not 'just a muggle.' But I can't help it getting to me occasionally. Come on, we have our own History of Magic class to attend." The smile she put on her face was clearly faked, but neither of the boys pushed her any further as they made their way to their next class and met up with their friends.

The others could all tell something was wrong, but before they could ask questions Professor Binns floated into the classroom and immediately began lecturing about the outcomes of the Giant rebellion in 1536.

Lily instantly picked up her quill. With her head bent over her piece of parchment she tried to block out her constant habit of taking a silly thought and running wild with it. Immersing herself in work usually would have worked if she hadn't been so aware of her friends watching her every move. She knew outside of class that she wanted them to be doing just that, but in class she was supposed to be safe.

She looked down at her notes to remind herself where she was up to.

_The Giants were angry at the Voldemort request for muggles being bad. _

Lily started at the last sentence she'd written. Obviously she had too many thoughts running through her head. Running her hand through her hair, she placed her quill on the desk and decided her best option was to pay attention to Professor Binns' lesson and forget about taking notes. If she wasn't careful, all her thoughts would come out on paper during the lesson.

~*~

Remus and Sirius noticed the change in Lily's state almost immediately; in fact all their friends did. However, being seated directly behind her made it easier for these two to pick up on any changes. It wasn't that hard, not when they'd given up on listening to anything Binns had been saying within the first five minutes of the lesson.

Anyone paying close attention to the boys might not have thought as much, as their quills barely left the parchment all afternoon. But they'd devised a strategy for these sorts of moments: enchanted paper that allowed for all four to see the other's written message and reply in a similar method. Between Sirius and Peter, the other two Marauders had been filled in on what occurred in the bathroom. After the initial humour over the idea of Sirius and Peter stuffed in a toilet cubicle, James had issued his thought of concern over Lily's apparent light attitude.

'And you're sure she wasn't ready to break down at all?' James's message read. Peter had answered that he hadn't got a good look, being behind Sirius had made it virtually impossible to see Lily's reaction to the matter. James had to write it twice before Sirius replied.

'Sorry. No, she'd accepted the issue; but she looked like she was deliberating on something. Hey, have you noticed she stopped taking notes, since when does Lily Evans not take notes in class?' Sirius scribbled quickly to his friends.

The all looked at her.

'This is odd.' Remus wrote in his scrawling handwriting. 'I've been around her before when people single out her bloodline. Sure, she's never happy about it but she learnt years ago not to let it get in her way. But ever before has she felt the need to fake her feelings with an external brave face.'

'I'm with Remus on that one.' Peter replied, his curling writing standing out from the rest. When he had the time and patience, his writing was near perfect; it was one of the traits Sirius was jealous of as he often couldn't read his own handwriting.

'James, you know her a bit better than the rest, what do you think?' Sirius asked. Though he couldn't display his concern through vocal inflection his friends knew these subjects hit home with him. Bloodlines were among one of the worst topics Sirius had ever encountered due to his upbringing based solely on being "pure".

'I think this has to have something to do with her little visit to good old Lord V.' came his reply. 'I know she didn't tell us everything, though she may have told Dumbledore. I just wish she'd trust us with what happened to her.'

'Maybe she would if it wasn't all of us asking.' Peter said matter-of-factly, or as matter-of-factly as one could be on paper.

'What do you mean?' Remus wrote

'Whatever happened to her had to be rough. She told us Voldemort was behind it and that he tried to talk her into joining him. Well, obviously there was more to it than just that, but when there are six of your friends trying desperately to get information from you would you just hand it over to them? I think she needs one person to approach her on the subject and I think it should be James.'

'What makes you think I can get her to open up anymore than Dorcas or Alex could?' James asked.

'Well, I can think of one reason.' Sirius's reply said.

'Yeah, I think I can guess it too.' Remus said.

* * *

James pulled Lily aside when she left the History of Magic classroom a few minutes after her friends. She jumped slightly before she saw who it was attacking her arm and relaxed slightly. James noticed that her smile was forced.

"Come for a walk with me." James suggested more as a statement than a question, though he wouldn't push her too much if she refused.

Lily sighed and smiled up at him again, this time with a bit more feeling than before. "Sure."

"Are you alright?" James asked as he pushed open the giant doors to the outside grounds.

"I think so." Lily replied carefully stepping outside. She shivered a little, forgetting that it was almost December and that meant the air was chillier than she was prepared for. James threw an arm around her shoulders in an attempt to keep her warm, she didn't object to it being there.

"Why's that?" He asked again, hoping for an easy and open conversation to occur.

"I don't know." She said honestly. "Tired, I guess, worried maybe."

"I'd tell you that there's nothing to worry about, but we both know that would be a lie." James said giving her shoulders a slight squeeze.

Lily smiled up at him. "Thanks for not lying to me. Though I'm certain the lie would be better than the truth." She pulled away from him and sat down on a sheltered bench. Leaning against the wall, she drew her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees.

James sat down next to her, straddling the bench in order to view her completely. "What happened to you?" He asked directly, both his voice and face matched each other in concern. She didn't say anything. "Come on, talk to me. You can't keep everything pent up inside of you, it'll drive you mad. What happened?"

"I don't know." She said again and groaned when a lone tear streaked down her cheek. She quickly brushed it away before James could fuss over her. "I thought I was dying, I was so certain of it; and when I knew I was still alive death sounded like a comfort. Merlin, they wanted to use my blood to re-paint the walls." James made a sound of indignation before she continued. "But he wouldn't let them. I didn't know whether to feel grateful or be worried still. I like worry won out, and that's probably what kept me safe. By being worried I was able to keep thinking straight. And the worst part, or one of the worst parts, was that he didn't torture me or threaten me or even yell at me. Everything he did and said, apart from the whole stealing my essence thing, was _kind._ He offered me _tea,_ what kind of evil mastermind drinks tea anyway? And – and he told me I had promise and that I should join his band of merry little followers. He didn't call them 'merry little followers' but I'm sure that's what he meant to say. And then he –"

James waited for her to continue. When it appeared she wasn't going to say anything else he tried to get her to open up again. "And then he…?"

"It doesn't matter." She said quickly looking out at the students mucking about on the grounds.

"It matters to me. Merlin Lily, we're all on edge here. None of us understand what's going on and we're scared for you." He admitted, placing a hand over the one she had resting on her knees.

"Then why aren't the rest of them here pestering me too?" She asked attempting to add a bit of humour into their conversation.

James smiled, realising that she was buying time. "They thought I'd have better luck. But that's not going to get you out of the question. What else did he do to you, what else did he say?"

"Did you know he locks up the wands of everyone who _worships _him? I saw them lying there on a desk in his personal rooms. It's like he doesn't trust them not to turn on him or go out on a killing spree without his permission." Lily said, once again dodging the question. "The wand I came in with, that belongs to someone who follows him, who knows which someone. I hope they can't get another, then that'll mean one less person to create evil in the world."

James sat patiently as she rambled on, letting out all her feelings the she'd kept to herself these past few days. She barely looked at him the entire time, as though she couldn't face someone with these thoughts but was happy to finally be able to speak them aloud.

"I swear as I was leaving the house I heard him say that _this_ was 'Strike One'. Strike one of what? Usually its strike three and you're out. But out of what? Out of chances to join him, out of chances fight back, out of chances to live? When those girls today looked at me with such disgust I didn't feel like yelling at them for keeping their stupid pure-blooded values," She said, switching topics so quickly that James hardly had any time to register the change. "All I wanted to do was tell them that their precious pure-blood loving leader wanted _me_ to join his ranks. I think Severus is a Death Eater."

"What?" James managed to spit out in the middle of her stream of thoughts, earning a quick glance in his direction from Lily.

She sighed. "I can't be sure. I don't know if Voldemort was meaning Severus talked to him directly or if he'd heard it from someone who got the information from him."

"Got what information?" James asked running a hand through his hair. Dreading the answer, he tried to keep his anger in check, if he let his emotions get the better of him would likely end with him going after Severus directly and asking questions later.

"About me, about my potential." Lily answered finally turning around to face him completely. "I'm so scared James, what if he comes after me? What if Severus helps him do it." This time she didn't bother stopping the tears that fell, there were too many of them to catch.

James reacted immediately, jumped forward and wrapping both his arms around Lily. She held onto him so tightly, as though the world was about to drop away from her and the only thing that would hold her to the ground was James. He rubbed slow circles along her back and kissed the top of her head.

"We're going to do everything we can to stop that from happening. But the only way we can help is if you tell someone." He said calmly into her hair. "If you don't want to tell the others you at least have to tell Dumbledore. He needs to know everything."

"I told him already." Lily muttered against his chest. "He said he's looking into it and for me not to worry. But it's hard not to worry when you don't know what's going to happen."

"Well that's life for you," James stated. "You can't always know what will happen, but you can try your hardest to prevent the worst from happening."

They sat there holding each other until Lily got herself together before going inside to join the others. James wasn't sure he was going to tell his friends what happened, not unless Lily wanted it known. But if there came a moment when it was necessary to tell in order to protect those he cared about he wouldn't hesitate to fill them in. But for now, Lily had someone to talk to, and that was all that mattered.

* * *

**A/N: I thought it was necessary to update this story today, even though I should have been doing uni work, because uni will be my priority for a while now. That's not the say I won't try and update every now and then, just that I might have trouble and be forced to stop at any given time. **

**As for the chapter, I hope you liked it. I'm sorry some of it repeated the previous chapter but it was necessary for James to understand what occurred. **

**Feel free to review. **

**~James' Girl Lily. **


	15. Tension Relieved

There You Were

Chapter 15: Tension Relieved

* * *

Darkness. Corridor. Distant voices. He was dreaming again. James groaned silently. He wondered if he could actually talk to the mysterious voices of his dreams, but the idea made him nervous. After what happened to Lily who knew whether he was actually standing near them or not and whether they could harm him if they discovered him standing there listening.

He took a step closer to the voices and tried to concentrate on their heated discussion. The female sounded furious.

"We're in a school, you idiot!" She screeched, clearly not in her normal giggly mood. "A school that _obviously_ can't be infiltrated by Death Eaters; it's one of the reasons we decided to move ahead with our plan here. Who else would want to piss of a lowly little student? But no, _someone_ is talking, and since it's not me and certainly don't think it's you there's someone else weaved into this little mess."

"I have an idea of who it might-"

"Don't speak. No speaking. God, we had it all worked out. She trusts me and when she came back raving about Voldemort taking her soul." There was a pause for a moment before she spoke again. "Well, I didn't believe it at first. But now…Why would the Dark Lord want _her,_ when he has people like us?"

James didn't find out the answer. At that moment a shout came from somewhere in the distance and he jerked awake to discover Sirius sitting upright in his bed.

"What?" James demanded instantly; worried that Sirius, like Remus, had experienced a similar dream to him.

"I had to worst dream _ever!_" Sirius replied shuddering. Though he didn't appear to be terrified like Remus was, James couldn't quite work out his response, after all Sirius and Remus reacted to things in different ways, and Sirius was used to people practicing in the dark arts. Waving his hand a little, James prompted him forward. "My _mother_ came to tuck me into bed, told me a bedtime story, kissed me on the head and said 'Goodnight Sweetheart.' What kind of sick dream is that!?"

"Go back to bed Sirius." James muttered tiredly. "You'll live."

* * *

"It's the weekend!" Sirius announced to his friends as they made their way into the common room.

Taking a seat by the window Remus rolled his eyes. "We know Sirius, it tends to arrive every so often after a Friday. When you're older you'll get used to it."

"I know that Moony, but we should do something fun. We haven't done anything exciting this year." Sirius replied as he let himself fall onto the lounge next to Remus.

"You mean babysitting Lily hasn't been exciting, I never would have noticed." Peter said sarcastically, earning himself a punch on the arm from James; though the grin that accompanied it proved he'd heard the joke in the statement.

"Okay, so there's excitement in some things we've done," Sirius started. "But nothing Marauder worthy."

"Well we have the Quidditch match on Saturday, that's going to be exciting." said James finally joining the conversation.

"Good, but still not Marauder worthy." Sirius said gloomily.

"But if we win, we'll have to have a party of course." James reminded him with a casual shrug of his shoulders.

"Now we're getting somewhere." Peter jumped in. "Butterbeer, firewhisky, Honeyjukes lollies galore."

"In that case we better head off now; lots to buy and so little time. I'll get the map, James I'm using your cloak." Sirius exclaimed brightly.

"I think I'll skip the trip this time." Said Remus as he picked up a book off the table. It was the latest novel of the famous witch Wendell Mysery; a crime thriller about the shy but powerful Auror that manages to solve the strangest cases imaginable with nothing but a crystal ball and a piece of string. Remus had no idea how _every_ case could be solved in that way, but something always made him want to find out.

James too was uninterested in going on this 'Marauder party' gathering. While he missed doing things with his friends, last minute party planning was not something that tickled his fancy. "I'll pass too."

Sirius seemed unmoved by their lack of response. "That's fine, it'll be a surprised for both of you then. Come on Wormtail, let's go gathering."

They raced upstairs and were out of the common room in under five minutes.

"They'll go overboard as usual." Remus commented over the top of his novel which was currently turning the pages by itself.

"Oh, let them have their fun. We won't get to do things like this for much longer." James sighed thinking about the end of their school lives coming to an end. He sat like that for a moment or two before heading off to bed, only sadness would come of thinking of the future.

* * *

_Whoosh. _The crowd cheered.

That morning, the students had gathered in the stands of the Quidditch pitch waiting impatiently for the beginning of the Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor match. The school was in need of a little fun, particularly since the past few days had been full of frequent Death Eater sightings.

The game had been going on for almost an hour and the score was 40 to 30 with Ravenclaw in the lead. Gryffindor had just stolen back the quaffle and was heading towards the goal posts at the far end of the pitch.

James ducked under an oncoming bludger swearing under his breath as it passed over his head. '_Someone had a bad aim today_.'He thought to himself as he considered the fact that he wasn't even a threat at this moment, having trailed behind his team mates in a worst-case scenario planned out earlier. He didn't like thinking they'd lose hold of the quaffle so easily, but if the situation unfolded that way he wanted to be prepared for a quick dash to the enemy's side. It turned out his efforts were unnecessary. Gryffindor scored perfectly. The crowd cheered once again.

James shot down the other end of the pitch, racing the Ravenclaw Chaser in possession of the quaffle.

Remus and Peter waved at James as he passed their stand, while Sirius yelled at him to 'pull his socks on'. He wasn't sure what it meant exactly, but he'd heard Lily say something similar earlier and hoped it meant something to him. Remus shook his head but didn't correct him.

The girl in question had given up on the match after the first half hour, saying she was sick of watching the players fly from side to side and not doing anything. Instead she had decided to go for a walk along the lake with Dorcas promising to be back before the match ended, though neither knew if they were capable of doing such a thing.

-0-

Lily jumped up upon the nearest rock landing off centre. Wobbling slightly she tried to regain her balance before she fell off. Her attempts appeared to be failing until Dorcas shot her arm out steadying her best friend.

"Are you ok?" She asked, waiting for Lily's nod before she let go. "Be more careful. We didn't watch over you for weeks only to have you hurt yourself falling off a rock."

"Yes mum." Lily replied with a grin. She still hadn't told anyone else about her encounter with the Dark Lord and was trying not to think about it too much, which often meant resorting to silly jokes and lines to lighten the mood. Though her friends knew something was off about her behaviour they weren't willing to push her into anything.

"You know what we need to do?" Dorcas asked jumping up next to her on the rock.

"What do we _need _to do?" Lily teased, earning herself a punch in the arm.

"We _need_," said Dorcas stressing the word in the same way Lily had. "to have a girls night, the way we used to. Staying up all night eating nothing but things that will rot our insides in an attempt to have a little fun."

Lily grinned. "That sounds perfect! When do you think we can get it set up?"

"I can go to the house elves now and put in a special order. We could have it tonight."

"Excellent." Lily exclaimed. "And someone can do my nails, because I suck at the painting part; and play 'Imagine your Life' like the old days. You can marry Cameron Hardy again if you really want to, but I'm changing your house, I never liked the whole pink fence thing and if you insist on me continuing to be your best friend you'll change it immediately."

"Hey!" Dorcas protested with a smile. "I never wanted the pink fence either, that was Alex's addition."

"Either way it has to go." Lily exclaimed clapping her hands in excitement.

"Come on, we better get going." Dorcas said jumping down off the rock. "You have a Quidditch game you promised to watch the end of, and I have house elves to visit."

Without another word, the girls moved off towards their respective destinations, both looking forward to the coming evening more than they had been before.

-0-

"Move your arses!" Sirius screamed once again, earning himself a supporting yell from those around him. "You're being pathetic. Look, I can see the snitch from here!" Of course, he couldn't but he made the Ravenclaw Seeker follow his line of sight anyway. The Gryffindor Seeker, Patch, knew Sirius's ways too much to fall for a trick like that. She grinned at the comment hoping there'd be more of those to come.

In the meantime, Gryffindor scored again pushing themselves into the lead by 10 points. However, their lead was short lived.

"Pathetic!" Sirius cried, pointing off in another direction. "I can see the snitch again!" The problem with these taunts at the other team, was that Sirius was so distracted by his own comments that he didn't realise his latest statement was, in fact, true.

The Ravenclaw Seeker, not trusting that all Sirius's taunt were fake, dived for the snitch. It wasn't until it was too late to act, that Patch noticed the truth. Ravenclaw had caught the snitch, the game was won.

As the Gryffindor team landed, Patch was in the process of defending their loss.

"It's not my fault!" She said, her tone bordering that of a whine. "Sirius actually pointed to it that time."

"We know Patch." James said, clapping her on the shoulder. "Next game we'll put a silencing charm on Sirius, that way he can't distract anyone."

Walking over to his friends, James glared at Sirius. "Looks like there'll be no party this week."

"Are you kidding?" Sirius said in disbelief. "We'll just have a 'Better Luck Next Time' Party. It'll still be Marauder-y fun. You'll see."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for such a giant gap between updates, and for the small post. Uni took over my thinking for a past few weeks and it's going to do it again soon. Thought I better update with something. **

**Enjoy. **

**~James' Girl Lily**


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